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48 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 49 VOL. XVII NO. III InSight WINTER/SPRING 2008

IMAGERY FROM THE WORLD OF FSU RESEARCH & CREATIVITY

cover artwork: Celander Creative

Florida State University Research in Review is pub- lished three times annually by the Office of the Vice President for Research, Florida State University, with editorial offices in 109 Westcott Building, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306- 1330. Any written portion of this publication may be reprinted without permission as long as credit for Florida State University Research in Review is given. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily PIANO, PAGE 8 COVER STORY, PAGE 12 DIATOMS, PAGE 34 reflect those of the Florida State University faculty or administration.

Send correspondence to Frank Stephenson, research communications director and editor, to the address F E A T U R E S waters of the world, yet are scarcely noticed except by some above, or e-mail to [email protected]. Phone: of the keenest eyes in biological science...... 34 (850) 644-8634. Cover Story Visit Us Online: Florida’s Failed Fix-All: Changing Sisters: www.RinR.fsu.edu The 1985 Growth Nuns’ Coming of Age THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY by Robert Pool

ADMINISTRATION Management Act Just yesterday, one of Catholicism’s most enduring sym- by Parker Neils T.K. Wetherell, President bols in society was the cloistered and habited nun, whose For 23 years now, Florida has been living under a self-imposed Lawrence G. Abele, Provost, VP Academic Affairs worshipful work stayed within lines drawn by 700 years mandate—one of the strongest ever put into law—to crank some Kirby W. Kemper, Vice President, Research of tradition. No mor e...... 38 sense into the way it handles its own growth. After 8 million Lee Hinkle, Vice President, University Relations new Floridians, have we accomplished anything?...... John R. Carnaghi, Vice President, Administrative Affairs 12 Mary Coburn, Vice President, Student Affairs D E P A R T M E N T S O T H E R F E A T U R E S ART OF WAR EDITOR: Frank Stephenson ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Christine Suh Piano R : A New Tonic for Abstracts A series of new paintings entitled “Small Memorial for a Great Loss,” by Adam ART DIRECTOR: Robert Celander x Periscope on campus life & research...... 2 WRITERS, THIS ISSUE: Christine Suh, Frank Piano Treasures Straus, is a tribute to U.S. soldiers lost in the Iraq war. After his MFA training at Stephenson, Robert Pool, Parker Neils, Kim by Frank Stephenson From The Field Florida State in 1982, Straus eventually moved to New York where he’s enjoyed MacQueen The remedy for restoring prized pianos to their original Snapshots from the global reach of FSU research...... 7 glory is a rare elixir of one part science, one part art...... 8 remarkable success. His artwork has been featured in Harper’s magazine and has been ILLUSTRATION: Celander Creative, Jeff Parker PHOTOGRAPHY: Ray Stanyard, Frank Stephenson Portrait the subject of dozens of one-man exhibitions all over the world. Straus has served as The Large Small World Spotlight on Florida State faculty...... 45 visiting artist at Davidson College in North Carolina, the University of West Florida, of Diatoms the Seaside Institute and the Penland School of Crafts. The FSU exhibit featured FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES by Christine Suh Chair Vice Chair Every day, they bloom by countless billions throughout the Straus’ work along with that of his mother, noted sculptor Phyllis Straus, recently JIM SMITH HAROLD KNOWLES DERRICK BROOKS RICHARD MCFARLAIN retired from the FSU art department faculty. SUSIE BUSCH-TRANSOU E. ANN MCGEE EMILY FLEMING DUDA JOE O'SHEA DAVID FORD JAYNE STANDLEY ATTENTION TEACHERS: We encourage the use of this magazine as a MANNY GARCIA LESLIE PANTIN JR. teaching aid for middle and high school students. For more details, WM. ANDREW HAGGARD e-mail the editor at [email protected] or call 850-644-8634. Also at: http://trustees.fsu.edu/trustees/ 46 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 47 lished during 2007 closed January AP E R I S C O bstP E O N C A M P UractsS L I F E A N D R E S E A R C H New Light on 7, 2008. Judges are working now to Cancer Fight declare the winners, who will be announced at a Florida Library As- For their ever-growing arsenal of sociation banquet in St. Petersburg cancer-fighting tools, doctors may and a special ceremony held at the one day have a new, improved type diatricians identify the signs of au- an ongoing study she started in 1998 Early Autism Detection Department of State’s offices in Tal- of phototherapy being developed tism in infants—the site had more that identifies autism’s red flags in Focus of $1.4M Grant lahassee in conjunction with Florida by a team of FSU researchers. than 10,000 registrants in its first young children. Heritage month, both in April. Au- Their novel advance, reported in Two decades ago this year, Dustin month. A web link to a sampling of clips thors published from January 1 to the journal Proceedings of the Na- Hoffman put a Hollywood face on The new site provides a vid- is also being distributed via the new December 31, 2008 will be able to tional Academy of Sciences last autism in the Oscar-winning film eo glossary of typical and atypi- Autism Toolkit for pediatricians de- submit their works for the compe- year, comes in the form of an en- Rain Man. Since then, public cal behaviors in children younger veloped by the American Academy tition’s third year. gineered molecule that is almost awareness of the disorder has than 24 months. It went live in Oc- of Pediatrics, which now recom- Last year, during the awards’ twice as efficient at killing cancer surged. But medicine is just be- tober 2007 and can be accessed mends that pediatricians screen first full competition, Florida State cells as molecules currently used in ginning to deal with detecting the through the web sites for Autism all children between the ages of B

writers took several top honors. As- approved phototherapy techniques. A disorder at the earliest stages in L Speaks (www.autismspeaks.org), 18 and 24 months for autism spec- O T

sistant Professor of English Juli- Lab results put the new therapy at O

life, when intervention has its best, H

First Signs (www.firstsigns.org), or trum disorders. P

anna Baggott won first place for 50 percent efficiency versus the 25 U

and possibly only, chance to make S

Wetherby’s FIRST WORDS Project “The younger we can find them, F

her children’s book The Somebod- to 33 percent garnered by usual : O

a difference. (firstwords.fsu.edu). the better they do (with interven- T O

ies (HarperCollins, 2006) under the methods. H Experts say that today in the “The response to the ASD Video tion),” Wetherby said.—C.S. P pen name N.E. Bode, and Associate Most phototherapy (also called THIS U.S., one in every 150 children at Glossary has been overwhelming- Professor of English her colleague, photodynamic therapy) methods in- age 8 has a medical condition that ly positive, and more people have U U U BREAKTHROUGH James Kimbrell, associate profes- volve injecting a drug into a cancer falls within what scientists call the registered than we anticipated,” sor of English, won for My Psychic, patient’s bloodstream, waiting un- in what are called “split-field” magnets is autism spectrum of disorders. Wetherby said. DESIGN New Salute to (Sarabande Books, 2006) his book of til the drug is flushed from normal “It’s more common than diabe- The project, for which Wetherby a new product of engineers at the National High Magnetic Field Florida Writers poetry; they are just two of several cells but lingering in cancer cells, tes in childhood,” said Amy Weth- collected more than 2,000 videos, successful competitions in Califor- headquarters at Innovation Park in Tallahassee. Made from a FSU faculty award winners. and beaming a light source into af- erby, FSU professor of communi- just received an additional $1.4 mil- Early spring in Florida is azalea nia and other states. The program is a venture of the fected tissues. The light activates mix of metal alloys that include beryllium, copper and silver, the cation disorders and well-known lion from the Centers for Disease time; it’s legislature time; and Now, at just over a year old, the FSU Program in American & Flor- the drug, which produces a reac- device—which features four ports around its perimeter—will autism researcher. “It’s more com- Control and Prevention to continue as of now, it’s book competition competition “brings FSU’s name to ida Studies. It’s co-sponsored by tive form of oxygen that clips the mon than Down’s Syndrome, more to search for early signs of autism awards-time. the far corners of the state,” Wie- allow scientists to introduce experiments directly into magnetic a host of organizations including cell’s DNA and destroys it. common than severe hearing dis- spectrum disorders, and to deter- The Florida Book Awards slipped gand says, and with seven different fields from the side, instead of conventionally from the bottom or the Florida Historical Society, the Igor Alabugin, FSU associate abilities.” mine how common the group of dis- quietly into existence in late 2006, competition categories, is by far Florida Humanities Council, the professor of chemistry and bio- top of a magnet’s core. Called the Split Florida Helix, the design That may be why—when Weth- orders is among children under 4. the brainchild of director Wayne the nation’s most comprehensive Florida Literary Arts Coalition, the chemistry, leads the research ef- will become the heart of a new magnet set to debut in 2010 that erby partnered with the non-profit In addition to overseeing video Wiegand, professor of Library and contest of its kind in the nation. Florida Library Association, and fort. He said the advantage of pho- organizations Autism Speaks and selection for the glossary, Wetherby Information Studies and professor The competition awards Florida is projected to be the world’s most powerful split-field magnet. “Just Read, Florida!,” the Gover- totherapy over some other cancer First Signs to create a website provided dozens of the clips from of American Studies at FSU, who authors in general fiction, young For more details, visit www.magnet.fsu.edu/magnettechnology/ nor’s Family Literacy Initiative. All treatments is that the technique de- aimed at helping parents and pe- her own project. FIRST WORDS is modeled the program after similar adult literature, children’s litera- judging is done by three-person ju- stroys cancer cells while leaving research/magnetprojects/splitfloridahelix.html.—F.S. ture, Florida nonfiction, poetry, ries drawn from the membership of most healthy cells alone. A major popular nonfiction and Spanish the co-sponsors. problem, however, is that current language books. With the excep- “It’s really our partners who make drugs rely on oxygen to work, and tion of books in the Florida nonfic- us so successful,” Wiegand said. cancer cells don’t carry a lot of its targeted cells. attached another molecule to the tion category, all books must have “We march in lockstep with a lot of oxygen to begin with. The approach exploits an earlier lysine that would, when exposed been written by full-time Florida things that they do, and we end up Another problem with approved finding that a common, naturally to light, clip the second strand and residents. working as true Democratic part- phototherapies is that the drug occurring molecule called lysine kill the cell. For 2006, its first year, the com- ners, to the benefit of all of us.” molecules remain active even af- has the ability to find partly dam- The molecule also controls petition had 71 submissions, at For more information on the ter they’ve done their work. They aged DNA. cells’ acidity, he said. Cancer cells least one for each of its seven cat- Florida Book Awards, visit www. continue to produce reactive oxy- DNA will quickly repair itself if tend to be more acidic than nor- egories. The next year submissions fsu.edu/~ams/bookawards/index. gen, which can go on to cause oth- only one of its two strands is dam- mal cells, so pH becomes another were up to 85, and Wiegand said he html. —K.M. er problems in the body. Albugin’s aged. But if both strands are bro- factor that can be used to keep was confident that submissions for team’s molecule solves both prob- ken, the cell will likely die. Taking damage to healthy cells to a bare 2008 would easily top 100. U U U lems: it doesn’t require oxygen and advantage of lysine’s ability to find minimum. —C.S. Competition for books pub- becomes inactive once it has killed single-strand damage, Alabugin U U U

2 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 3 Abstracts/continued bases used in financial market re- $2M Grant to Boost WET WORK: Using the FSU search,” said Caryn L. Beck-Dud- Business Research marine lab's R/V Seminole, ley, dean of the college. divers from the Center for Talk about a return on investment: A Florida native, Taylor held a Oceanographic and Atmospheric In February, Florida State’s College number of leadership positions in Prediction Studies deploy of Business learned it’s getting $2 Bank of America before retiring instruments at the USAF's K million from one of its own, an in 2007. He also served as Florida Tower located 17 miles S-SE of

M alumnus banker who credits the president for NCNB, predecessor

O the Panhandle's Dog Island. C . college with giving him the start to Bank of America, from 1990 to O T

O that launched a highly successful 1993, and served as president again H P K 38-year banking career. The funds after the NationsBank and Barnett C O T Bank merger in 1997. —K.M. S are in line to be matched by state Oceanographic and Atmospheric The fish heavily depends on the I

R monies. Administration to the Northern Gulf region’s extensive sea grass beds O

F U U U . The grant creates the Gene Institute, a consortium of South- for juvenile development. R J

, Taylor/Bank of America Center ern research universities based at The third site, where work be- E C I

T for Banking and Financial Studies Mississippi State University. Be- gan last October, is the U.S. Air S Checking the Pulse of U

J inside the College’s finance depart-

gun in 2006, the institute has five Force’s K tower, a familiar fixture to .

C the Big Bend Gulf ment, in honor of Gene Taylor, a partnering members, including area fishermen and boaters since it H P

E 1969 graduate of the program. S If all goes well, a brand-new array Florida State. was constructed in 1977. Located O J

“This will help the Department : of sensing devices deployed off the Scientists associated with the roughly 22 miles south of the marine O T

O of Finance recruit and retain high shores of Franklin County, home project say a primary goal of the lab in 60 feet of water, the tower is H P quality faculty by enhancing faculty of Florida State’s marine lab, soon institute is to fill in long-standing one of a constellation of six that the salaries, providing research grants, will be firing back a solid stream gaps in the scientific knowledge of USAF uses for fighter-jet training enhancing Ph.D. student stipends of information that researchers, the Gulf of Mexico’s northernmost based out of Eglin Air Force Base tin. FSU’s component, FSUTeach, ful replications of the UTeach Rx for Florida’s Ailing and making available critical data students and the public have never perimeters. For years, marine bi- near the Panhandle’s Panama City. was awarded $5.15 million, while program. Science Ed had access to. ologists and oceanographers have FSU scientists won permission from UF’s counterpart, called Flori- “Instead of making incremental Construction began in 2007 on known that the waters off Florida’s Eglin officials to use the K tower to As a sobering national report to daTeach, received $5 million. improvements in how we prepare a five-year project that when com- Big Bend region are some of the mount a variety of both subsurface Congress in 2005 made clear, the One of UTeach’s main goals has science and math teachers, we’ll WILLIAM CHRISTIANSEN, Bank of America pleted will see a complex of scien- least studied in the entire Gulf, and topside instruments, which will U.S. is losing its competitive edge been to attract science and math be able to take an entirely differ- Professor of Finance at FSU, will head the tific instrumentation set up both on a problem for natural resource include a live camera for studying in science and technology as the majors into teaching experience ent approach and make a dramat- new Gene Taylor/Bank of America Center the sea floor and on at least one managers charged with monitor- wave conditions. nation’s students’ performance in early in their college years. That ic difference for the better,” said

for Banking and Financial Studies. of six existing navigational towers ing the health of vital marine and When completed, instruments math and science continues to lag approach, along with providing Joseph Travis, dean of FSU’s Col- ± maintained and run by the U.S. Air estuarine areas. This new project, mounted both on the tower itself in global rankings. The report mir- internships and giving teachers- lege of Arts and Sciences. “We’ll Force. When fully specifically designed to address and on the sea floor around it will rors Florida’s woeful situation—on- in-training early classroom expe- be reaching out to students who th operational, these this deficit, represents the most feed data, on round-the-clock, one- ly a third of the state’s 11 -graders rience, has helped UT double the may not even have considered a devices will be ca- ambitious data-collecting effort to 10-minute intervals, to a radio passed the state’s science assess- number of math and science teach- career in teaching and preparing pable of sending ever launched for a region that transmitter mounted atop the tower. ment test in 2007. ers it graduates, and so far they’re them more thoroughly in science constantly updat- represents one of the Gulf’s most The transmitter will then relay the A new $10 million initiative, an- staying in the profession much lon- and math than ever before.” ed measurements important ecosystems. information to a base station at the nounced last fall, is being lauded as ger than the national average. Florida is chronically in need on such oceano- The project’s first phase will marine lab in real time. the beginning of a new day for pub- FSU hopes to duplicate Texas‘ of middle and high school science graphic and me- see the installation of three mon- Mark Bourassa, a meteorolo- lic K-12 science and math instruc- success, if not top it. Students en- teachers who have specific train- teorological phe- itoring stations directly offshore gist with FSU’s Center for Ocean- tion in the Sunshine State. The rolling in the new program, jointly ing and education in the science nomena as the Florida State’s Coastal and Ma- Atmospheric Prediction Studies program began this spring on two administered by the Colleges of courses they teach. Last fall, The speed and direc- rine Laboratory based on U.S. (COAPS), is one of about 20 Flori- partnering campuses, Florida State Education and Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg Times reported that tion of wind and Highway 98 at Turkey Point. Two da State scientists involved in the and the University of Florida. will graduate with a double major— 10 percent of new science teach- currents, turbid- of the near-shore installations will NGI project. Funding permitting, Funded by ExxonMobil’s $125 one in a math or science field and ers and 7.5 percent of all science ity, salinity, water automatically measure a variety of Bourassa said the plan calls to ex- million National Math and Sci- one in education—and be certified teachers in Florida are not cer- temperature, hu- sea conditions, including nutrient tend the instrumentation to other ence Initiative launched in March to teach upon graduation. They’ll tified in the subjects they were S

midity and wave loads, turbidity and salinity fluc- Air Force towers located further P D

2007, the non-profit Helios Educa- have several different in-service A hired to teach. R O A C

Y tuations, information that will be offshore. All of the data, he said,

heights.

tion Foundation and matching state ,

and teaching opportunities along N For more information on the Y A E T

The project is directly applied to FSU biologists’ eventually will be available on the R S funds, the Florida program is mod- the way. The UTeach Institute will O

National Math and Science Initia- M Y part of a larger, continuing research into the ecol- COAPS web site: www.coaps.fsu. E eled after UTeach, a teacher-train- A provide course materials, opera- V tive, please visit www.national- R

E : $6.3 million grant ogy of one of the Gulf’s most impor- edu. —F.S. T O S

ing strategy established 10 years tions manuals, consultation and T mathandscience.org. —C.S. : O S H

from the National tant marine fish, the gag grouper. U U O P ago at the University of Texas-Aus- training in establishing success- U T

U U O

U H P

4 Florida State University ResearchinReview SWINTER/SPRINGUMMER/FALL 2007 2008 5 FromtheF ield C S N A P S H O T S F R O M T H E G L O B A L R E A C H O F F S U R E S E A R C H

RES EARCH ER: DR. DA N IEL VA N D U R ME

D A DOCTOR WITHOUT BORDERS A

B

IN COUNTRIES WHERE MALNU- corners, but seeing is humbly makes less than a dollar a day— of Ghana’s patients face are, in TRITION, measles and diarrhea believing. maintains high standards of fact, similar to many rural pa- rank among the top five causes When Dr. Daniel Van Durme, a health care relative to its finan- tients’ circumstances in the U.S. of children’s deaths, there are practicing physician and profes- cial circumstances, he said. Still, many physicians in the U.S. F still lessons Americans can learn sor and chair of the Department Most of Ghana’s medical are pushed by an impersonal sys- A) Dr. Daniel J. Van Durme to improve their own health-care of Family Medicine and Rural facilities and equipment don’t tem to spend as little time as pos- B) Kumasi hospital wards system. It’s a hard pill to swallow Health in Florida State’s College measure up to U.S. technologi- sible with patients in assembly- typically contain up to 40 in the U.S., where such condi- of Medicine, first visited Ghana in cal standards in health care, line-like fashion. beds, with not even a curtain tions are tucked in overlooked 2006, the high quality of medical but when it comes to Ghana- To expose future docs to a in between. education impressed him. ians’ philosophy of care, Van more caring approach to care, C) The area is full of The small West African coun- Durme said, Americans should on his trip last year Van Durme billboards like this one, try of about 23 million people— pay attention. traveled with members of a cam- promoting AIDS education where a third of the workforce “They do a good job, better pus group of medical students, and awareness. than some places in the U.S., called Students Interested in D) Medical student Christine of recognizing the need to treat Global Health, to Ghana for a Rojas takes the blood the whole patient, not just the two-and-one-half week tour of pressure of a patient in disease,” he said. the country’s medical network, Ofinso. Ghanaian doctors, Van Du- including trips to rural clinics, E

E E) Colorful fishing boats line rme added, are taught to weigh M urban hospitals and a medi- R als can share their own exper-

U the Cape Coast along the

D G the realities of poverty, lack of cal school. This summer, as- N tise as well.

A Atlantic Ocean. V

transportation or conflicts with . sociate professor and medical J The value of this kind of ex-

L F) A canopy walk through the E traditional beliefs or medicine, doctor Robert Campbell went I

N change is something Van Durme

A rainforest rises up to 100 feet D

for example, that can interfere with the student group on the . learned years ago. Ghana is the R above the ground. D

with a person’s ability to receive excursion. : S latest global destination for the

O G) Dr. Van Durme and a group T

care in the modern, “Western” Clearly, Ghanaian physicians O professor, who also continues to H of FSU medical students pose way. Asking these questions struggle with formidable obsta- P practice medicine in clinics in for a photo outside a small specific to poverty might seem cles in providing care for an im- and around Tallahassee. Among rural hospital in the village of irrelevant to U.S. doctors, many poverished populace that don’t other countries, Van Durme has Ofinso. of whom come from middle-class face their U.S. counterparts. made the rounds for humanitar- H) Outdoor shops dot the families that don’t confront the But Americans can still benefit ian as well as educational pur- roadside outside Kumasi. same challenges, but dismiss- from studying others’ diverse ap- poses to Azerbaijan, Russia, Viet- ing them would ignore America’s proaches to health care, and in nam, Panama and Mexico in the own reality. The problems many return, U.S. medical profession- past decade. —C.S.

H 6 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 7 B y F r a n k S t e p h e n s o n PUTTING NEW LIFE into prized pianos— plus the old-world art of piano restoration— is Florida State’s one-of-a-kind program in piano technology, launched last fall. Anne Garee, the program’s director, poses with one of her lab’s newly restored works, an exquisite Steinway model B grand, built in 1911. inset: Graduate student Cristina Kauffman, of Massachusetts, tunes a fortepiano, an immediate ancestor of the modern piano. opposite page: Graduate student Chantal Fennell, of Ontario, installs new strings on a seven-foot Mason & Hamlin grand built in 1927. PIANO

D R A Y N A T S

Y A R

: S O T O H P ven in Beethoven’s day, a good piano technician was hard to find. But Etwo centuries on? Fine craftsmanship in everything from woodcarving to glassblowing is as rare in today’s techno-crazed world as a well-made, domestic handmade cigar. And yet, the piano—that grande Italian invention of the 18th century—defies the pitiless superficiality of popular culture to remain the defining icon of truly civilized life. Countless thousands of the instruments are priceless heir- looms lovingly passed through generations on all continents. To these numbers are added dozens of new pianos each year that are exquisitely designed and built to technical standards

D that haven’t wavered much, if any, in a century. An R

old-world art A Y

N But who’s taking care of all these supremely tempera- A T

S mental instruments with all their fancy classical pedigrees?

is revived in Y A

R The short answer: Far too few who really know what they’re

: S

O doing. T O

an all-new form H For decades now, a shortage of academically attuned P piano specialists has been recognized as a worldwide phe- nomenon. The need is apparently not driven by a lack of

8 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 9

D R A Y N A T S

Y

A FINE TUNING: Students resort to meticulous weight calibrations, laptop computers and machine tools to analyze R

:

S and rebalance a venerable grand piano’s problematic keyboard. O T O H

P ±

EASY DOES IT: top: qualified piano tuners—although really good “We’ve designed this program to take the talent at the keyboard. For their piano tech- of 240 modern pianos—scattered across Graduate students ones still may take some hunting in some best primary training in piano technology nology training, students will take courses four performance halls and dozens of Amy Porter of Ontario parts. The truly endangered species in the now available anywhere and take it to the in such disciplines as chemistry, physics, classrooms—plus a variety of vintage in- and Jennifer Roberts field of extended care for pianos is the highly next professional level,” Garee said. geometry and engineering—all of which struments that include four harpsichords, (Sydney, Australia) trained technologist who not only is skilled in redesign, rebalance, College grads interested in applying for play critically important roles in the arcana of two clavichords, square grands and a th and rebuild the ac- piano performance but also is savvy to every the program must first get a certificate in piano restoration, tuning and maintenance. fortepiano, the modern piano’s 18 cen- tion for a 1954 Mason ± technical, historical and cultural nuance of an piano technology from one of a handful of Additionally, they’re required to take a tury precursor. & Hamlin concert instrument whose evolution has produced an schools that offer a nine-month resident broad range of liberal arts classes typical of Garee said the program’s primary grand superimposing astoundingly (some might say confoundingly) training program. Supporters of FSU’s mu- a master’s of arts degree. goal is to provide the piano industry and new methods onto diverse family tree. sic school have underwritten the program’s Students will also have the chance to academia with technicians with the highest old designs. below: A Ergo, the first graduate degree program in start, and last summer, a $100,000 individual conduct their own research with the lat- skills possible in musicianship, technology German grand piano, piano technology in North America opened last donation with $50,000 in matching funds est tools in the field to analyze the various and—what’s this?—communication. hand built in 2004 by fall at Florida State. from the state kicked off an endowment that technical aspects of the instrument from “These students will be musicians first,” the Seiler Company, The brainchild of Anne Garee, a faculty Garee hopes to see keep growing. acoustics to tone production. she said. “No matter how good you are at gets a tuning. member in FSU’s College of Music, the exclu- By ushering applicants first through a With a physicist for a dad and a mom who knowing the physics, the wood, the metal, sive, new two-year masters program already is residency program, Garee guarantees that was a professional pianist and music educa- the history and so forth that make up an in- causing a buzz in the music industry. they will arrive at FSU with the training, tor, Garee, a New York native, figures to have strument, the key to being successful in this And just how exclusive? The program is lim- experience—and perhaps most important all the personal prerequisites befitting anyone field is being able to communicate to other ited to only those rare students who are trained of all—the psychological bent necessary to at the helm of this one-of-a-kind program. musicians in terms they can understand.” both as musicians and as technicians, says Garee, succeed in a rarified field that demands far Then there’s the benefit of working in one Roll over, indeed, Herr Beethoven, who structured the curriculum and the prereq- more from students than command of the of the nation’s most well known places for and strike a chord to that. RinR uisites based on her 25 years of experience in formidable technical skills required. advanced training in music, period. tuning and restoring pianos and teaching piano First on the list of prerequisites is playing Garee’s students will get to live, train For more information on the Masters of technology to students, teachers and profes- the instrument itself. All students must be and work in a veritable piano archive— Arts in Piano Technology program, visit: sional pianists both here and overseas. musicians in their own right and demonstrate FSU’s College of Music now boasts a total www.music.fsu.edu/pianotech.htm

10 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 11 Y B Y P A R K E R N E I L S R O T S

R E V O C "Everything that is good and that is bad in the flesh is to be found in Florida.” An old style evangelist’s summary appraisal of Miami’s sex-soaked South Beach? Not even close. But the speaker was most definitely a preacher of sorts—an evangelist for building livable cities the right way, the first time. In the 1920s, John Nolen, a Harvard- trained Boston consultant and widely acclaimed city-planning guru, found in Florida a “great laboratory of city and town planning.” In 1923, Pain in Paradise: Nolen was hired by the City of St. Petersburg to draft what would become the state’s first comprehensive plan for building a city. Lauded for his work, Nolen saw in Florida enormous potential for becoming a national icon FLORIDA’S for states interested in rational expansion of their living space. Nolen called upon Florida's >

A noble effort toF manage Agrowth, launIched inL 1985, is sEhipwreckeDd. After two dFecades anId 7 milXlion more F-loridianAs, should theL plan be sLalvaged or scrapped?

12 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 13 Y R

O P A I N I N P A R A D I S E ...the landmark 1985 Growth Management Act...the most ambitious city T S

planning agenda ever to become law. R E leaders to establish a system of planned cities that would model the professional city planners had been waging since the days of the the nation’s growth rate during this period. All this new people- V E O

nation’s urban future and ensure that “progress in civic develop- visionary Nolen. Finally, Florida—already in the throes of the pressure has spun a chaotic tableau that borders on bad fiction: T A T T C S S I

T ment in Florida will be much more rapid and thorough than in fastest growth in the nation—had the statutory teeth to clamp In a state where water once was considered a providential F R

U O

A

T E the other commonwealths.” down on bad development. curse, Florida—still dependent on wells for over 90 percent of N H E T

M F T O A half-century later, the Sunshine State emerged from the its tap water—is running dry. “Water wars,” which have cost R

A N P O E I D backwater of Southern politics to pass a law much like Nolen had r did it? Twenty years on, has Florida’s once-heralded Growth S local governments in the Tampa area millions since 1975, are

S I A D M I

Management Act done anything to even slow down—much R proposed. Overnight, Florida became a national leader in what had migrating east and south, as communities are forced to deal R E O P L

F H become a new imperative for cities across the country—growth less stop—the worst abuses growth has wrought on wetlands, with yet more growth amid a protracted drought that drops , T I N W O

O I D

management. on resources—on us? If so, how can one tell? the water table lower each day. T E C T E N L I

Taking even a cursory glance at the state today, one can fairly L In 1985, Florida’s Governor Bob Graham surprised critics by R Even as a seven-year-old, $10 billion effort to undo historic, O P U C E

R C winning broad bipartisan support for the landmark 1985 Growth ask: Has the Florida Dream morphed into the Florida Nightmare?

manmade damage to the Everglades’ ecosystem plods along, I : H K P R A

Management Act, the most ambitious city planning agenda Since 1970, the state’s population has exploded, vaulting from O the region is getting squeezed like never before. By all ac- R W G T O R T

ever to become law. The bill’s passage culminated a battle that 6.8 million to 18.3 million in 2007, a feat that more than tripled A counts, huge new developments and agri-business appear to be O H P going about business as usual, oblivious to stresses on South A D I R

Florida’s existing water supplies, roads and utilities. O L F

Orlando, Tampa, West Palm Beach and Miami have become E U H T

:

the most lethal places in the nation for pedestrians. Orlando O T O H

and St. Petersburg are so plagued by “road rage” they’ve been P called the two angriest cities in the U.S. ± U Florida’s world-famous fisheries, once thought inexhaustible, THE LEADING POWER BROKERS behind Florida’s landmark Growth Man- are in serious trouble. Pollution from urban run-off, combined agement Act in 1985 were Senate President Harry A. Johnston II (Dem., with wholesale destruction of wetlands by developers, has de- W. Palm Beach), seated, far right, and Rep. Jon Mills (Dem. Gainesville), stroyed more than 2 million acres of the state’s seagrass, vital extreme left. Also pictured, from Mills’ left, are Sen. Fred Lippman, Sen. habitat for many fish and shellfish species. Fishing pressure Ken Jenne, and House Speaker James Harold Thompson. on dozens of saltwater species has grown to the point where draconian catch limits are undermining the state’s $4 billion Florida better off for having a far-reaching set of growth manage- recreational saltwater fishery, an industry heavily subsidized ment laws on the books for two decades? Reasonable people would by tourism. pose the question, and finally they have. The result is a compilation of answers and insight from 20 policy makers and scholars that ap- The long litany of self-inflicted woes Florida faces today may peared in book form last fall. be nothing compared to what’s in store for the trendy state. If Tim Chapin, an associate professor of urban and regional plan- it stays as trendy, demographers predict Florida’s population will ning at FSU and one of the book’s three editors, said the work, double to 36 million by 2060. Research by the nonprofit growth Growth Management in Florida: Planning for Paradise (Ashgate management watchdog group, 1000 Friends of Florida, predicts Press, 2007) is the most comprehensive and detailed assessment of that growth will be accompanied by a loss of another 7 million Florida’s far-reaching growth management legislation ever done. He acres of farm and wild land to asphalt and concrete. and his co-editor, departmental colleagues—Harrison Higgins and Charles Connerly—believe the book provides a compelling argu- ment for fixing Florida’s growth management system and restoring ALL ACADEMIC? the broken promises of the 1985 Growth Management Act. As part of a 2005 symposium sponsored by FSU’s DeVoe L. TO BE SURE, a recent avalanche of bad press from devastating Moore Center for the Study of Critical Issues in Economic Policy hurricanes, a nasty insurance crisis, a train wreck of a housing & Government, Chapin, Connerly, and Higgins invited experts market, and grief over rising property taxes has cooled things from 10 universities and a number of federal and state agencies to down some. In fact, scattered reports have suggested that Florida’s delve into a subject most Floridians face daily, yet seldom study in population may actually be shrinking. But the real numbers show any schoolroom. Undoubtedly many would be amazed to know otherwise. People are still flocking to Florida, and by the busloads they live in the most intensely planned state in the country. (see page 16). The authors’ firsthand experience compelled them in this effort Given the kaleidoscope of problems that beset the state, is Continued on page 18

14 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 15 Y R

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R E V O C LORIDA S OPULATION ROWTH F ' P G 2007

2005

A

D

I

R O

L IS FLORIDA SHRINKING? end in sight. Smith’s bureau serves as the state’s chief source F

F O

news stories carried by both state and national of demographic vital signs. The bureau tallied 331,235 new

S Last year,

E 18.5 17.4

V

I

H newspapers suggested that Florida’s population trend—seemingly Floridians arriving in 2006, roughly 906 newcomers per day.

C

R A

locked in overdrive since DisneyWorld opened in 1971—may have This is a net gain, after deaths and residents moving elsewhere

E

T A

T shifted into reverse. were factored in.

S 2000

: O

T Cited were statistics from moving van companies that showed Still, this represents about a 17 percent drop over 2005,

O H P outbound families exceeding inbound, the first time on record when an estimated 402,000 moved to the state, proof that that’s occurred. Several perennially overcrowded schools were Florida’s once red-hot growth rate has cooled. Long gone are reporting unheard of enrollment drop-offs. Numbers of people from the heady days of the last decade of the last century, when other states signing up for a Florida driver’s license reportedly Florida grew by a sizzling 23.5 percent, while the nation grew at 16.0 Numbers represent millions of Floridians: dropped 8 percent from 2006 to 2007. Accounts of how Florida less than half that rate. was losing people—fed up with hurricanes, high property taxes, “Rumors that Florida’s population is declining are false,” insurance woes and rising costs of living—to Georgia and Smith told Research in Review. “The increase we had in 2006 1995 1.9 1940 North Carolina added to a perception that the Sunshine State’s was smaller than in the previous seven or eight years, but was population was shrinking. still larger than the average increase during previous decades.” Professionals who get paid for dealing with the enormous As for what’s ahead, Smith’s group forecasts a continued problems posed by Florida’s growth in recent decades might wish slow-down in Florida’s growth rate through 2030, when the 14.5 2.5 1945 this were the case. The fact is, says Stanley K. Smith, director of state’s population is predicted to hit 26.5 million—a whopping the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University 42 percent jump from today. Floridians unhappy with life in 2.8 1950 of Florida, Florida’s population is still climbing, and there’s no Paradise today, say planners, haven’t seen anything yet. —P.N. 199013.0 3.7 1955 TAMPA’S SPRAWL MACHINE These two satellite images, shot 22 years 1985 apart, clearly show how 1960 urban sprawl consumed 11.3 5.0 Tampa, Florida and its environs. From 1984 to 2006, the population of the metro complex of 1980 1965 Tampa/St. Petersburg/ T C E

Clearwater grew from J O R P 1.8 million to 2.7 9.8

5.9 T A million. S D N A L

S G

1970 S U

Landsat 5 image of Landsat 5 image of :

S 1975 Tampa, Florida—1984 Tampa, Florida—2006 O T O H 6.8 P 8.5

16 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 17 Y R

O P A I N I N P A R A D I S E T

Continued from page 15 ± S

R that goes, as it does, to the very heart of their profession—essen- HOW FLORIDA FARED under E tially the science of how to build economically and environmentally the first 20 years of a land-

V SAVING PARADISE mark growth law is analyzed

O sustainable communities. Working with communities struggling to in Growth Management in C solve such problems as traffic congestion, scarce water resources, Florida: Planning for Paradise WITH THE PURSE and affordable housing, they all have seen growth management (2007, Ashgate Press). at its best and worst. They know more than most that Florida’s If one is inclined to search for a bright side to the vast environmental carnage left in the growth management laws are far from perfect, but without them, wake of Florida’s growth machine, there’s some legitimate good news out there. Chapin said “many communities would be so busy dealing with lature. Gov. Bob Graham was so many fires to put out that they would rarely, if ever, find the backing a bold new slate of bills For one thing, what’s been lost forever is a 2006 purchase of the lion’s share of prime example of what can happen when time and energy to envision a desirable future and work towards aimed at reducing Florida’s to urbanization only serves to highlight the 91,361-acre Babcock Ranch, located on well-meaning bureaucrats, in their land-saving its implementation.” growing pains while doing more the magnificence yet to be saved. Tens of the edge of the Great Cypress Preserve in zeal, disregard solid growth management Still, the FSU study holds up a mirror to a Byzantine set of to protect the state’s besieged thousands of acres of Florida contain some Southwest Florida’s Lee County. The state fundamentals. Higgins and Paradise laws that have had two decades to make a difference. The sobering environment at the same time. of the most diverse, and relatively healthy wild paid $310 million (supplemented by another conclude: “While some groups argued that reflection shows 20 successive years of broken promises. He’d soon get his wish—the areas in the world, even though biologists say $40 million from Lee County) for 73,236 acres, the opportunity to preserve over 70,000 first comprehensive set of laws built on more than a decade of these places represent the most endangered home to a number of rare and endangered acres was too good to pass up, Florida’s efforts to come to grips with pressing social and environ- ecosystems in the U.S. species, including the Florida panther. The others believed it was a Faustian WHAT WENT WRONG? mental problems caused by the state’s soaring popularity. Florida’s considerable natural treasures key to the final purchase: Florida had to agree tradeoff, one that would bring As the contributors to Planning for Paradise underscore, it yet to be saved or ruined are well known to allow developers to turn 17,000 acres of substantial development in “BRIMMING WITH GOOD INTENTIONS,” is how a New York was clear to anyone paying attention that by the close of its first not just among environmentalists but also the original tract into a brand new town site the form of leapfrogging throughout the highest echelons of state designed for 50,000 residents. While the Times reporter described the opening of Florida’s 1985 Legis- Continued on page 20 sprawl to a government. Since 1960, the state has trade-off irked many, most environmental rural area spent upwards of $8 billion to buy up more groups in Florida hailed the transaction as o f t h e than five million acres—about 14 percent of a landmark case in the long fight to keep state.” the entire state—for conservation. Florida’s the state’s remaining wilderness from being reliance on its checkbook as a sure-fire tool destroyed. for protecting Florida’s environment from Higgins and Paradise write that Florida a rising tide of residents is the focus of a Forever and its predecessor programs, while study by FSU researcher Harrison Higgins laudable, demonstrate a disconnect between and grad student Neil Paradise. Their findings the original intent of Florida’s 1985 Growth appear as a chapter in FSU’s new growth Management Act and what has since become management book, Growth Management in public policy. Managers of Florida Forever Florida: Planning for Paradise. have “implicitly assumed that land acquisition The study focuses on Florida Forever, is the only means” the state has for protecting the latest incarnation of Florida’s land- what’s left of its natural areas, they argue. preserving campaigns. Created by an act of By ignoring “the ability of growth the 1999 state legislature, Florida Forever management controls” to keep wild areas is the largest, most ambitious state-run from being destroyed, the authors assert, Meanwhile, land acquisition program in U.S. history. the state risks undermining the efficiency of Florida Forever Lawmakers authorized the program to fund land acquisition deals, resulting in the state itself may not be forever. itself through 2010 by selling $300 million in potentially paying owners more than their If the Legislature doesn’t bonds. property is worth. Moreover, by chucking reauthorize the program it will expire Run by the Department of Environmental its own growth management guidelines and in 2010. With recession fears making Protection’s Division of State Lands, the buying up land willy-nilly, the state is creating lawmakers nervous, backers of the program program is the outgrowth of highly popular attractive, developable real estate adjacent to sense a tough battle ahead to keep Florida’s initiatives that since 1990 have put 2.3 million people-sensitive wild areas—in other words, premier land-acquisition machine in gear. acres of land permanently beyond the reach opening the door to the chief bane of growth, Ironically, this comes at a time when the D R

A of development. urban sprawl. state’s real estate meltdown is creating real Y N

A –P.N. T Easily the largest and most expensive The authors suggest that the Babcock bargains in rural lands.

S PLANNER PROFS: (from left) Charles E. Connerly, professor and chair of FSU’s Department of

Y

A land deal Florida Forever has made so far Ranch purchase may yet prove to be a

R Urban and Regional Planning, and department colleagues Timothy S. Chapin, associate professor, : O T and Harrison T. Higgins, planner-in-residence, co-edited Planning for Paradise. O H P

18 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 19 Y R

O P A I N I N P A R A D I S E T S

THE GROWTH OF R

E FLORIDA'S GROWTH LAWS V O

C State Comprehensive Planning Act: Created Div. of State 1972 Ultimately, the state plan...became largely Planning, called for creation of state comprehensive plan; Established Areas of Critical State Concern (ACSC) and ignored by planners throughout Development of Regional Impact (DRI) planning processes. state government. Local Government Comprehensive Planning Act: Required local 1975 governments to prepare & adopt comprehensive plans; State powers limited to comment, not review and enforcement. 1980 Regional Planning Council Act: Regional Planning Councils (RPCs) required throughout the state.

State and Regional Planning Act: Required the development of 1984 a State Comprehensive Plan. RPCs designated as the primary agent to address regional issues, with a requirement that they prepare Regional Policy Plans.

Local Government Comprehensive Planning and Land 1985 Development Act (Growth Management Act): State mandates certain elements in local comprehensive plans; Concurrency policy mandated; State-Regional-Local planning framework Continued from page 18 established. T C decade, the best-laid plans of Florida’s landmark growth manage- on doing, the new law required that such plans be “consistent” I R T S with the guidelines set forth in the state comp plan. I ment law had gone awfully awry. D

T State Comprehensive Plan adopted: A directions-setting N In the book’s second chapter, Tom Pelham succinctly outlines Ultimately, the state plan—perhaps because it was never linked E 1985 M

E document with 27 goals across a broad array of issues. G

how the law jumped the tracks and now lies today in what he sim- in any way to the state budget—became largely ignored by plan- A N A M ners throughout state government. Through various amendments ply calls “a mess.” In 2007, Pelham was tapped by Gov. Charlie R

E Growth Management “Glitch Bill”: Refinements and T “and administrative neglect,” Pelham writes that the plan “never A 1986 Crist to return to his old post as secretary of the Department of W

A clarifications to the 1985 GMA. D I

Community Affairs (DCA), a job he first held under Gov. Bob became a factor in the implementation of the (larger growth man- R O L F agement) process.” With no playbook to go by, local governments

Martinez from 1987 to 1991. The 1985 law designated the DCA H

T Chapter 9J-5 FAC: Detailed rules on the content and form U

had nothing to make their plans “consistent” with, and thus a O 1986 as the state’s chief land-planning agency, and charged it with S

: of comprehensive plans and criteria related to compact S

making sure local governments complied with the new policies. key tool that Pelham believes could have been a powerful agent O T development established by DCA. O H

By far the most radical of these was a requirement that all local against the worst elements of urban sprawl went by the boards. P jurisdictions (67 counties and over 400 cities) draw up detailed His summation of the status quo: Growth Management Act: Restricted the powers of the RPCs and comprehensive plans for guiding future growth and development “Consequently, the State Plan currently is the object of criti- 1993 reduced the scope of regional policy plans; Phased elimination and submit such plans to DCA for review and approval. cism and even ridicule because it is seldom used (and) has little or of the DRI process. In his criticism of the shambles Florida has made of its no effect on governmental decisions; and, except for DCA’s urban well-intentioned growth management policies, Pelham pulls no sprawl policies, has little impact on the review and approval of local Reinstatement of the DRI process. punches. His analysis starts with the fate of the State Comprehen- plan amendments.” 1995 sive Plan, a prominent part of the growth management package Urban Infill and Redevelopment Areas legislation: An attempt passed in 1985 that was supposed to lay a rational blueprint for 1999 to promote redevelopment in the state’s urban cores through dealing with growth. CONCURRENCY: THE reduced state oversight and financial incentives. Pelham writes that this plan was intended to be the key UNFUNDED MANDATE “direction-setting document” to help guide local governments in 2000 “Pay as You Grow” legislative package: This legislation designing their own comprehensive plans. The state comp plan IN A SUBSEQUENT CHAPTER, Efraim Ben-Zadok, a professor included an increase in state funding for infrastructure, relaxed would provide “long-range policies covering a wide range of social, of public administration at Florida Atlantic University, explains transportation concurrency standards, required concurrency for economic, environmental, natural resources, conservation and land how the architects of the 1985 growth management legislation schools, and greater planning for potable water supplies. planning issues.” Whatever local governments ultimately planned essentially built the law on three legs—or in his word, “faces” — FLORIDA’S HISTORY of dealing with its burgeoning population with state-ordained management policies began in earnest in 1972, a year after DisneyWorld opened its gates. —source: The FSU Department of Urban & Regional Planning 20 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 21 Y R

O P A I N I N P A R A D I S E T S

R E V

O of policy: consistency, concurrency and compact development. and state funding of infrastructure. Since then, the burden has the major—antidote for urban sprawl, which by the early 1990s C These hallowed “3 c’s” were intended to be the primary gears been shifted largely to local and increasingly narrow sources of was the stuff of near-daily headlines in newspapers from Orlando that drove the growth management bus. revenue.” south. Easily the stickiest element of this policy triad was—and still The real upshot for city and county administrators? Seemingly with a life of its own, Florida’s sprawl monster was is—concurrency, a policy that prohibited local governments from “The reality for local governments in Florida is that they have on the loose and gobbling up everything in its path. State tourism approving development projects before all the necessary resources needed to become entrepreneurial agents, constantly on the look- officials, natural lands administrators and conservationists realized were in place, e.g. roads, sewerage, solid waste recovery, drain- out to generate new revenues,” Nicholas and Chapin wrote. By that the very things that had caught the nation’s attention after age, potable water systems, parks and recreational facilities, that 1990, almost every county in Florida was hiking up local gasoline World War II—Florida’s incredibly rich and beautiful wild areas, the projects would need. (The concurrency mandate deliberately and diesel fuel taxes, creating special taxing districts and imposing unsullied springs, rivers and estuaries and dazzling beaches—were omitted the construction of schools as a prerequisite because of the all sorts of impact fees to pay for development. smack up against the suburbia-making machine. From 1975 to prohibitive cost involved, although school concurrency eventually Since then, state lawmakers have on occasion tried to ease the 1990, nearly two million acres of citrus groves, cow pastures, became law in 2005.) burden on local governments, but with only moderate success. As woods and scenic wetlands were replaced by end-on-end, look- In theory at least, even from the outset this “pay as you go” the 20th anniversary of the ‘85 act approached, concurrency stood alike strip malls, fast-food franchises, lounges, laundromats, car concurrency policy made a lot of sense. Ostensibly, the policy out as the largely unfunded heart of the law. As a result, Nicholas dealerships, ersatz resorts and golf courses. and Chapin conclude, Florida’s heralded attempt to rein in some meant that development would pay for itself. But it didn’t take Like the hidden roots of a noxious weed that can pop up seem- FLORIDA’S long for reality to set in for both state and local planners. Just of the worst aspects of growth got derailed, giving a green light ingly overnight to turn a pristine lawn into a jungle, urban sprawl where was the money supposed to come from to pay for all this to full-throttled urban sprawl and uncontrolled growth. found fertile ground in the Sunshine State. Developers found it DRAMATIC new infrastructure, which was projected to cost nearly $53 billion much easier and cheaper to buy and manage rural properties than ASCENT from a throughout the law’s first decade? The ‘85 law had essentially spin their wheels in costly, urban thickets of zoning and permitting sleepy, hot, and humid written a large check that the state somehow magically expected SPRAWL YA’LL laws, higher land prices and impact fees. Leapfrogging develop- spit of wild wetland and to cash. ment proceeded apace, and as a result, today much of Florida’s sprawling beach into In 1987, Gov. Bob Martinez, a Republican, announced a WITH “CONSISTENCY” AND “CONCURRENCY” largely empty 1,300-mile coastline is already built out, and developers’ attention the nation’s fourth most plan to pay for the law’s commitments—a statewide sales tax on chambers in Florida’s new growth management gun, the goal of is now turning toward the state’s interior (see Pelham interview, populous state has a wide variety of previously tax-free services, ranging from legal pursuing more compact development soon loomed larger in the page 24). been chronicled by popular publications such and accounting services to newspaper advertising. With surpris- hopes of Florida planners. The central idea seemed practical, at The key to all this sprawl, not surprisingly, is Americans’ torrid as the St. Petersburg-based Florida Trend ingly little hullabaloo, lawmakers put party squabbling aside and least in theory: Meet growth’s demand by making already existing love affair with cars, a concept John Nolen in the 1920s never since 1958. passed Martinez’s bill. This “services tax” was projected to raise urban cores more attractive; build with more density, yet enhanced fully anticipated. By the time Florida lawmakers got serious about upwards of $16 billion annually, an amount that would mean the “livability” in mind with services, recreation and other amenities Continued on page 26 state would be picking up the lion’s share (66 percent) of the cost within walking distance. The concept was seen as a major—if not of concurrency each year. But the story of what became of Florida’s now infamous services tax highlights a chapter written by Chapin and James Nicholas, professor emeritus of urban and regional planning at the Univer- sity of Florida. The chapter contrasts the fiscal theory against the fiscal reality of the growth management act, and paints a portrait T

of the 1985 legislation as an exercise in fiscal irresponsibility, if C I R T S not outright hubris. I D

T N

Within just six months of its passage, Florida’s services tax was E M E G

repealed by a special session of the Legislature, called, ironically A N A M enough, by a chagrined Gov. Martinez himself. Newspapers had R E T successfully marked the tax on advertising as an infringement of A W

A D the First Amendment, and the most promising cord in Florida’s I R O

L ...FLORIDA’S SPRAWL MONSTER WAS ON THE LOOSE F

already anemic tax-raising muscle was cut. From that moment H T U N on, write Nicholas and Chapin, it was clear that state government O O S

S : N O E

wouldn’t be a big player in the concurrency-funding business. T AND GOBBLING UP EVERYTHING IN ITS PATH. H O P H E P “The repeal of the Services Tax brought an end to broad-based T S

K N A R F

: O T O H P 22 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 23 Y R

O R i n R I N T E R V I E W T S

R E V O

C WITH TOM PELHAM

HOMAS G. PELHAM figures to be a good cThoice to be Florida’s top growth planner—again. From 1987 to A CHAT 1991, Pelham worked for Gov. Bob Martinez’s as head of the state’s Pelham knows there’s still broad public support for better growth chief planning agency, the Department of Community Affairs. Last management laws in Florida—as a nascent grassroots effort to year, when Gov. Charlie Crist reappointed Pelham to his old post, change the state constitution underscores. the move was applauded by sprawl-watchers statewide. Called Florida Hometown Democracy, the group seeks an amend- A land-use attorney who has covered the field both inside ment that would require all land-use decisions, no matter how and outside Florida government for nearly four decades, Pelham trivial, to be decided by voters. Although he derides the idea as has been characterized as the state’s most vocal critic of its own hopelessly unworkable, Pelham said he nonetheless sees it as growth management policies. In a story in Florida Trend last year, indicative of “growing citizen dissatisfaction with the way we’re Pelham called the 1985 Growth Management Act “a mess” that dealing with growth and development issues.” is “badly in need of an overhaul.” Admirers say Pelham’s native-son pedigree—he was born and Appropriately enough, his words conveyed a sense of personal raised in the Panhandle’s historically rural Holmes County (pop: loss. After helping blow life into the law, in his interim private- 19,464)—only add to his credentials as Florida’s chief land-use sector years Pelham has watched the nation’s most ambitious planner. Pelham grew up seeing development transform miles growth management law become a joke. For all its good inten- of tranquil Gulf beaches in nearby Panama City into an interna- tions, the law—which in fairness never got the financial traction tional tourist destination studded with high-rise hotels, condos, it needed from the get-go—got crushed beneath an onslaught of chic bistros and tacky amusement parks. growth unprecedented in the U.S. From 1985 to 2000, Florida’s Pelham holds two degrees from Florida State—a B.A. in gov- population jumped 40 percent, from 11.7 million to 16.4 million, a ernment (’65) and a law degree (’71). He taught land-use planning national record. and growth management courses as an adjunct professor of law In 2008, Pelham faces his second try to get the old 1985 act at FSU from 1981 until his return to government service in 2007. substantially rewritten; reportedly, his first efforts back in his old In December, he sat for a short chat with Research in Review. job largely went by the boards in 2007 thanks to fierce lobbying Below is an excerpt from that interview; for the full text visit the

efforts by developers and road builders happy with the status quo. magazine’s web site at www.RinR.fsu.edu. —F.S.

RinR INTERVIEW

RinR: So, is your primary aim RinR: But even if you get an im- problematic. People criticize the RinR: In the (FSU) book, you a complete rewrite of the 1985 proved law, what’s it going to take act but it doesn’t matter what the described how the concurrency Growth Management Act? to enforce it better than the old words on the paper say if they’re policy wasn’t funded very well— Pelham: I wouldn’t say a to- law was? not implemented and enforced. if at all—from the start, and that tal rewrite but a really extensive Pelham: It’s going to take con- And so priorities change—one this was a real problem from the overhaul of the statute. It’s got- stant, steady attention to it, politi- group of leaders come in, they get-go. But critics say concur- ten to the point now that I think cal will and leadership, someone have different priorities and an- rency just contributes to urban the act inspires contempt and not who is interested in making this other group comes in and they sprawl. respect. It’s very difficult to use. system work. Executive leader- have still different priorities. And Pelham: The way we’ve imple- D R A

Practitioners talk about how dif- ship and legislative leadership at I don’t think that we have been mented it has I think contrib- Y N A ficult it is to deal with this stat- all levels are varied. It hasn’t been uted greatly to sprawl. On the T

very consistent over the 20-year S

Y ute. So it needs a good makeover, A constant, so the program tends to period we’ve been trying to make one hand our policies say that R

: O

streamlining and cleaning up. drift. Enforcement has been very this work. we want to encourage develop- T O H

> P

24 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 25 Y : R

O R i n R I N T E R V I E W T S

R

E A CHAT WITH TOM PELHAM V

O c o n t i n u e d C

ment in our major urban areas, ties that are under enormous our urban centers. But the way in pressure. Right now—today—we which transportation concurrency have roughly two million acres of has been implemented is to create land that are under proposal of Pelham: I believe transportation Pelham: Yes, more modes of 1000 Friends of Florida) projects economies that protect environ-

a huge obstacle to development some kind or other to convert them The south Florida water of New Urbanism? If so, why? D Pelham: R is the number one challenge we travel, everything from walking, 18 million more people living here mental resources and agricultural A Y

in the very areas where we say to urban development. Our de- management district tells us that Pelham: Yes. It accomplishes N to bicycling, to riding the bus. in the next three or four decades. lands. We have an opportunity to

A face. Water supply is a big chal- T S we want development and to drive partment gets proposals for large they are greatly concerned about a lot of things that the growth Y lenge, too. Both are essential for City-to-city, regional commuter How are we going to maintain mo- show that we can do a lot bet- A R

it out to where land’s cheaper, new developments and even new the declining supply of water in management act is trying to ac- : rail systems are going to be in- bility? Our major metropolitan ar- ter than we did in the past. And I

S sustainable growth. But we can O where there’s more road capac- complish. It’s a way to create a T cities in these areas, small, ru- south Florida. They’ve been issu- O and will develop new water sup- creasingly important, and there eas will become dysfunctional if think that means taking a firm line H ity, and you don’t have to pay as ral counties all the time—it’s no ing very strong objections to plan more livable community, with less P plies, even if water will become are already some encouraging we don’t have transportation op- and holding people’s feet to the much for transportation improve- exaggeration to say we get one amendments to increase develop- dependence on the automobile. increasingly more expensive as signs about that. There’s a com- tions. fire on the fundamental require- ments. So we’ve been working at every month. For example, in ment on the basis of lack of water. And a lot of it is all about cars. I’ve said. But the biggest problem, muter rail project that’s very close ments of our growth management cross purposes. Okeechobee County we got in So I think it’s becoming a very, very Compact urban development can in my view, is what we’re going to I think to fruition in the Orlando RinR: From your perspective and and environmental laws. They’re a proposal for a new city that is critical problem in the southern internalize traffic and create a do about transportation and how area, for example, and one I be- experience, what’s the best hope still there. We just have to be se- RinR: As I understand it, with larger substantially than anything part of our state, perhaps in the mixed use community that affords we’re going to pay for it. To main- lieve in the planning stages by we have for keeping Florida liv- rious about them. If we ignore the most of the state’s coast already that exists in Okeechobee Coun- Tampa Bay area on down. Actu- people opportunities to live and tain mobility of people and goods the new Tampa Bay transporta- able for our kids and their kids? increasing water problem, for ex- built up, the next development ty today. We have someone who ally, the technical people say that work and recreate in one place as we continue to grow, particu- tion authority. Our current trans- Pelham: I think we have to have ample, if we continue to sprawl front in Florida is the state’s ru- in Osceola County is talking of a we can generate or create new without having to jump into a car larly in our major metropolitan ar- portation concurrency system is at the top of our agenda creat- all over the state, Florida will not ral interior. new city with 100,000 residential water supplies but it’s going to be and drive everywhere. This is eas, roads alone will not suffice, geared strictly to the automobile. ing and maintaining a sustainable be a very livable place down the Pelham: Exactly right. In Flori- units and a population of 250,000 much more expensive. Most peo- really key to making growth man- and we will have to invest in multi- And it focuses all of our resources Florida. We have a great opportu- road. I think that requires work- da’s heartland, which I now call people. And that’s with an eco- ple are saying that we probably agement work. modal transportation systems. If on roads. If that’s the only thing nity now, in these rural areas we ing at it every day. Our growth the state’s last frontier now that nomic downturn. can come up with enough water we do not, Florida’s economy and we have to offer—the interstate talked about earlier, to show that can be a blessing or it can be a the Panhandle has been discov- but it’s going to be more expen- RinR: So, in your view is deal- quality of life will suffer. highway—we’re in serious trou- we can accommodate growth and curse. And it’s up to us to make ered in a big way, you have the RinR: What are people telling sive, possibly a lot more. ing with transportation the biggest ble. The car will always be there, development in a way that sus- sure that it’s a blessing. heart of Florida’s agricultural in- you about the water crisis in challenge the state faces during RinR: “Multi-modal transporta- but we simply have to offer people tains those areas as viable agri- RinR dustry, a lot of small, rural coun- Florida? RinR: Is it fair to say you’re a fan the next, say, 20 years? tion systems?” options. One recent report (by cultural economies, viable rural

P A I N I N P A R A D I S E and putting pedestrians and bicyclists at risk.” “From 1983 to 1997, the average daily miles traveled by vehicles Continued from page 23 As a consequence, reducing the multi-dimensional aspects went up by 96 percent in Miami-Dade and by 177 percent on Bro- of transportation planning to traffic flow had a cold but simple ward freeways; travel speed declined by 23 per cent and 18 percent growth management in 1985, of course, all talk of planning for efficiency in Florida: it produced an environment engineered respectively. The average time ‘stuck in traffic’ during 2001 was 42 growth began with what traffic engineers called “mobility” and to move machines, but at the expense of the human lives. Not hours in Miami-Dade and 30 hours in Broward.” the “demand to travel between and through communities.” surprisingly, Florida’s horrific pedestrian death rate—among the In 1999, the Florida Legislature tacked on yet another amend- Ruth Steiner, associate professor in UF’s department of city highest in the nation—is a phenomenon seen by some as a product ment to the already amendment-heavy growth management act, and regional planning, takes a close look at Florida’s transporta- of design, not accident. this one directly addressing the sprawl debacle, which Ben-Zadok A D I

tion dilemma. She reflects on the early, “cars-first” thinking of Besides its human toll, car-fueled sprawl has brought Florida R describes as “a by-product of poor transport planning, a problem O L F

“mobility” planners that took center stage from coast to coast in some of the most congested roads in the country, a traffic headache F that should be resolved via compact urban economic develop- O

S

the decade following World War II. Steiner writes that given the that turns out to be quantifiable. From 1990 to 2000, Florida’s E ment.” Through “a co-ordination of compact land uses” and V I H

exalted status of the automobile, it wasn’t at all illogical to design largest cities grew by 23.5 percent, and, as Ben-Zadok writes, in C “transport modes such as public transit and pedestrian ways” R A

E

“six-lane highways that cut though neighborhoods, reducing ac- these metropolises “traffic became heavier and slower (with) daily T Florida can keep sprawl in check, he concludes. A T S

cessibility to goods and services that are within walking distance commuting time increased.” Ben-Zadok writes: : Continued on page 28 S D R A C T S O 26 Florida State University ResearchinReview P WINTER/SPRING 2008 27 Y R

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E ORLANDO’S BOLD BLUEPRINT V

O residents were asked to vote their University of Pennsylvania, was But in 2000, Gov. Jeb Bush, himself a developer, Orlando has seen the future, sion voted against participating in C choice on four future development hired to make this status quo a federally funded light rail proj- told the Legislature that the 1985 growth manage- and it’s not for the faint of scenarios presented in a “How projection. He predicted that if ect, and $600 million earmarked ment system was broken and that a fundamental heart. The world’s busiest tourist Shall We Grow?” referendum. nothing changes, the region would for metropolitan Orlando went to rewrite of the law was in order. Bush sought to destination already sits at the core Only 4 percent of 20,000 voters implode around 2025. By then, Charlotte, North Carolina. Today roll back DCA’s oversight of local government of a seven-county, human beehive said they wanted to follow exist- Barnett calculated that it would be the Queen City operates streetcars comprehensive plans and give them more control of 3.5 million residents in Central ing trends, and a favored option impossible to build a functional and a light rail system that soon over development in their backyards. Although Florida. Planners predict this was to put more residents in road network in the region. More- will have 52 stops, and voters this initiative worried environmentalists who feared number will jump to a stagger- less space, even if that entailed over, the loss of natural lands recently approved a tax increase losing hard-won gains on growth policies, Bush was ing 7.2 million by 2050—nearly significant lifestyle changes. to development would decimate to extend the system even further. essentially following a trend toward giving local four million more people to find The 2050 Future Vision places the quality and function of the With its urban transformation now governments more say-so over development that water, power, houses, services a third of Orlando’s future popula- region’s ecosystem and supplies in full swing, Charlotte’s real began in 1991, with the first of many amendments and transportation for. tion in downtowns, town centers, of potable water. estate market has kept its value that provided “safety-valves” for meeting the state’s An entire chapter in FSU’s new and compact neighborhoods. The How successful was the proj- while Orlando’s is tanking. At the transportation concurrency mandate. analysis of Florida’s growth man- plan calls for less private space ect? Metro Plan, the region’s same time, Orlando’s is getting As Ben-Zadok suggests, this steady increase in agement policies examines how than today, optional driving, transportation planning agency, its corporate clock cleaned— local discretion over growth policies opened the Orlando’s Orange County has dealt and more varied and endearing has called for the restitution of Charlotte has eight Fortune 500 door to a liberal use of “exemptions and exceptions” so far with its human onslaught, public spaces. By building up the high-speed bullet train—the companies; Orlando has one. that sapped the strength of the original growth which grows by 30,000 newcom- rather than out, this plan stands aim of a short-lived constitutional (Orlando did learn something from management laws. Thus, with little state money ers each year. The study’s wry to save taxpayers $26 billion in amendment repealed by voters in its North Carolina rival—Orlando’s T

S infrastructure costs. A planned 2004—and the development of a available to apply to concurrency issues—road-building projects and Kate, forcing more than a million Floridians to evacuate and I conclusion? “Although every 2050 project was modeled on a T R A jurisdiction in the county has a acquisition of 850,000 acres of streetcar network. When added Charlotte initiative.) in particular—communities were left to pursue the cheapest, most doing millions of dollars’ worth of damage to beaches and in E H T natural land also integrates urban to a new commuter rail system Orlando’s bold, wake-up call convenient ways possible to accommodate their booming popula- particular, Apalachicola’s multi-million-dollar seafood industry. F plan, it is hard to characterize O

N development into a vast green that Metro envisions someday bears watching, state planners O overall growth in the county as tions. Sprawl reigned, and continued to undermine the idea of (Hurricane Andrew was still seven years and a record $26.5 bil- I S S I well planned.” infrastructure, made up of seven running through the heart of the say. As one of the nation’s most compact development, which proponents still argue is the best lion in damage away.) M R E

P natural corridors. region—between Deland and ethnically diverse and sprawl- The finding hardly comes as a

medicine yet for keeping Florida livable. Thus, the new statute duly included language that expressed H T I As a point of comparison, Kissimmee—the idea of attaining threatened cities, they see Or- W revelation to Orlando’s Chamber

the Legislature’s intent that “local government comprehensive D E

T of Commerce. In August 2007, a 2050 Future Trend scenario a new, more sustainable urban lando as the canary in Florida’s N plans...(must be designed to) protect human life and limit public I R

P the chamber finally rolled out the also was drafted that showed metropolis now doesn’t seem as coalmine. What happens in E

expenditures in areas that are subject to destruction by natural R ROLLING DICE IN PARADISE : what would happen if the county farfetched. the world’s most celebrated K most ambitious planning project disaster.” The DCA was authorized to require coastal communi- R O

W in Florida. Called the 2050 Future essentially did nothing and kept Proponents of 2050 say it’s fantasyland may turn out to be a T

WHEN GOV. BOB GRAHAM opened the box on growth man- ties to limit development in “coastal high hazard areas.” Special R A Vision, the product is essentially its current development pat- about time the area’s leaders did reality Floridians can ill afford to agement reform in 1985, although already in high gear toward “hurricane vulnerability zones” targeting larger areas also were a plan drawn up by residents terns. Jonathan Barnett, a well- something right for a change. In miss.—P.N. change, Florida was still largely an agrarian state where agriculture, to be designated with an eye toward maintaining the most rapid themselves. Earlier in the year, known urban designer from the 1998 the Orange County Commis- tourism, real estate and retirement still ruled the economic roost. evacuation possible when a hurricane threatened. Large manufacturing, high-tech research and information technol- In a chapter entitled “Are We Any Safer?” Chapin and two of ogy portfolios were still the stuff of economists’ dreams. his FSU colleagues Robert Deyle, professor of urban and regional Drafters of the new blueprint for growth had no reason to think planning, and Earl J. Baker, an associate professor of geography, IF PREDICTIONS HOLD, in 2050 Central that what had brought Florida into the national spotlight—a long evaluate just how well Florida has kept to the state’s hurricane- Florida’s seven county, 86-city region will hold 7.2 million growing season, ample water, clean beaches, low taxes, good high- safety guidelines laid down 23 years ago. The authors focused residents—4 million more than today. Since 2000, the region’s ways and plenty of roadside attractions—would ever change. their study on 89 coastal cities and counties. developed acreage has jumped from 1,675 square miles to 2,618. But one thing the drafters did know: Florida stood exposed to O By 2002, the researchers estimated that throughout the state By 2050, that number will double, planners say. This image drawn by the ravages of monster storms like few places on the planet. In light $80 billion worth of property and 958,000 new residents had been 2050 Future Vision planners depicts a desired system of interconnected of this unfortunate aspect of Florida’s otherwise alluring geography, added to hurricane zones prone to flooding. Two counties—Bay towns and cities, integrated with green space, aimed at keeping such the Legislature insisted that the new growth management laws and St. Johns—can no longer meet the state’s recommended growth from making the region essentially unlivable in 2050. include some marching orders for local governments to deal with minimum evacuation clearance time of 16 hours for monster annual threat of hurricanes and their inevitable consequences. storms like Andrew or Katrina. Barely six months after the Gov. Graham signed the bill into Ironically, it turns out that the dense populations in these law, Florida was slapped by two nasty storms, Hurricanes Elena Continued on page 30

28 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 29

Source: www.myregion.org Y R

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E to ante up a national catastrophe fund, it may very well become for a new area of urban design in Florida.” New Urbanism soon V too expensive to continue with ‘business as usual’ in the most became grafted into the fiber of Florida’s growth management O

C hazardous areas of Florida.” policy. Twenty years on, Florida has become the veritable incubator of New Urbanist projects for the nation. The state is home to NEW URBANISM PANACEA? more communities and downtown revitalization projects based on New Urbanism principles than any other. In 1996, the Walt DESPITE A MULTITUDE OF PROBLEMS associated with com- Disney Company rolled out a $2.5 billion, 5,000-acre town— pact developments, the idea of building full-blown communities Celebration, near Orlando—that was touted as a New Urbanist in smaller spaces—even in the nation’s number-one hurricane- utopia of sorts. Last year, a coalition of Orlando citizen groups prone state—resonates with most of the writers in Planning for and corporations launched “2050 Future Vision,” an ambitious Paradise. blueprint for Orlando’s projected growth. The plan places a third In general, they say the concept, especially when married to of the city’s future population into New Urbanist-style town efficient and attractive mass transit systems—the automobile clearly centers and compact neighborhoods. isn’t a sacred cow in the movement’s cosmology—represents the But the movement has never been without its critics. Despite most sensible course for Florida’s future. Regarded as the key their optimistic buzz, New Urbanist projects have so far captured element of what planners now call “smart growth,” compact only a fraction of the national residential market. Developers have development, at least in theory, has powerful potential for doing rarely opted for a New Urbanist plan when they had a choice, much for the common good, such as protecting Florida’s natural mainly because they tend to be more costly and take longer to environment, conserving energy, even enhancing safety, livability build than the standard strip mall.

A and a sense of community. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to growth plans based on New D I

R SEASIDE, FLORIDA, a master-planned, Gulf-hugging community in Florida’s Panhandle, O

L In the mid-1980s, the concept of compact urban development Urbanism is consumer choice, says Randall Holcombe, a Florida F

T became the icon for New Urbanism in the mid-1980s. The movement borrows I

S took physical form in Seaside, a small development nestled into a State professor of economics. Holcombe wrote a chapter in Plan- I V

heavily from architectural themes of yesteryear, when compact communities :

O stretch of Gulf coast sand dunes in the Panhandle’s Walton County. ning for Paradise that summarizes his analysis of counties’ use of T permitted growth with minimal urban sprawl. O

H urban growth boundaries, politically drawn areas where develop-

P The brainchild of developer Robert Davis, and architects Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Seaside reintroduced the na- ment is permitted. Such boundaries are planning tools ostensibly tion to the historic, pre-World War II pattern of town-building. aimed at curbing some of the negative aspects of urban sprawl. Continued from page 28 With services and recreation within walking or biking distance An unavoidable side effect of boundaries is that they reduce the and other high-risk coastal counties may not be just the end governments pay their fair share,” Deyle told Research in Review. around a people- and pet-friendly setting, Seaside’s design actually amount of developable land and thereby force prices up on what’s product of market forces at work, the writers suggest. Land-use Between August 2004 and October 2005, Florida absorbed resurrected many of the planning principles John Nolen helped left. Developers and buyers can escape such traps by running to regulations spelled out in the state’s own comprehensive plan its worst mauling by hurricanes in 80 years. In 2004, four major pioneer in Florida decades before. Evangelical in their mission to suburbs and rural areas, which they eagerly do. Holcombe told “promote higher density redevelopment and infill” as a means of storms—Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne—belted the state from reform suburbia, in 1993 Seaside’s architects drafted a Charter Research in Review that even for people with the wherewithal to discouraging urban sprawl. Vero Beach to Pensacola, inflicting more that $40 billion in prop- for New Urbanism that, in live in denser neighbor- Then, too, there’s the fact that since 1995, local governments erty damage throughout Florida and the southeastern U.S. The effect, nailed “99 theses” hoods, many simply in Florida are subject to being sued if they try to prevent some horror got ratcheted up the following year, when Dennis, Katrina, upon the door of the urban choose not to. people from living where they choose. Under the Bert Harris and Wilma slammed ashore, exacting an even more terrible toll— planning profession. The “Two of the main Act, local governments must pay landowners if regulations “inor- more than 50 dead and combined property loss exceeding $23 New Urbanism movement tenets of New Urban- dinately burden” their land or they must relax these restrictions. billion, all in Florida. Suddenly, the Sunshine State found itself in a was born, and Seaside soon ism are more compact T S I

This means that if counties are earnest about doing all they can to perfect storm of terrified homeowners, wary buyers, skyrocketing T became the most studied urban development R A

restrain development in the areas most vulnerable to hurricanes, wind insurance rates, a teetering, hyper-inflated housing market E

H town-planning project in a and getting people to T

F

they have little option but to buy their property and take it out and concern about rising property taxes. O generation. use alternative means N O I

of development, an option that Deyle said “isn’t practical on any Deyle summed up Florida’s dilemma in having no choice but S Even before the phe- of transportation oth- S I M

significant scale.” to live with nature’s most dangerous storms: “There remains a R nomenon had won fame, er than automobiles. E P

Local governments could charge “risk-based special assess- lack of political will in most of Florida to significantly limit de- H T the philosophy behind New Both of these tenets go I W

ments” to property owners who build in hazardous areas, a tax velopment in the areas most vulnerable to hurricanes despite the D Urbanism had caught on at against consumer pref- E T N aimed at defraying the costs of emergency management planning, state’s recent experiences and the ensuing wind insurance debacle,” I R the highest levels of state erences,” he said. “As P E R

hazard mitigation, and disaster recovery services. “Such assessments he said. “Long-term occupation of such areas is not sustainable planning. In 1990, the idea people get wealthier, : K R

would not preclude development in hurricane hazard areas, but without financial subsidies from people who live in higher, drier, O was hailed by DCA Secre- they want more living W T

and less exposed locations. If the federal government isn’t willing R they would just mean that those who impose greater costs on local A tary Pelham as “a model space, and they prefer

30 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 31 Y R

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V single family detached housing to apartment style analysis reveals, tests this theory. O

C living, especially when they have families. New Ur- As shot-through with loopholes as the now 23-year-old growth banism (thus) has to be forced on people by land use management law is, Chapin believes it still forces municipal of- planners who argue they know better what’s good ficials to “have their eyes on the horizon rather than on their own for us than we do.” feet.” This has produced a number of ancillary benefits, not the Holcombe said that New Urbanism also undermines least of which is the law’s success in getting professional planning one of the chief original goals of the 1985 Growth Man- ...THEY CONTINUE TO SPRAWL ONTO QUARTER-ACRE capabilities installed at the local level throughout Florida. Before agement Act, namely affordable housing. In his critique, 1985, one could count the number of county planning offices al- Pelham describes the “affordable housing provisions” of LOTS...AT...“THE MOST UNSUSTAINABLE RATE most on one hand. Today, most communities in the state maintain the 1985 legislation as “probably the most neglected part highly trained planning staffs armed with the know-how to deal of the growth management system.” Wherever they’ve effectively with issues that 20 years ago would have given county been built, New Urbanist enclaves tend to be marked by IN THE NATION.” and city commissions fits. Without the ‘85 legislation, that never exclusivity and escalating costs of living, pushing housing would have happened. costs beyond the reach of many. “The art of comprehensive planning has been advanced in Florida, and the state is seen as a model for comprehensive plan development in the United States,” the writers assert. In the N

O will ever speak is ‘enough.’” bargain, Florida has also become a nationally recognized leader

PARADISE POLITICS S N E In a recent Herald column, he picked up on the same theme. in transportation planning, as well as in finding innovative, local H T P C E I T If nothing else, Planning for Paradise dispassionately reveals the R “Politicians who resist calls for strict land-use reforms and continue ALTHOUGH UNINTENTIONAL, the sub-title of the growth S means of financing it. T

S K I N D

intractable complexity of Florida’s growth management dilemma A to shill for special interests risk being dumped from office by those management study, Planning for Paradise, strikes a nostalgic chord T Furthermore, there’s evidence that growth management laws R N F E

: and wisely proffers no easy remedies. There’s consensus among M they’ve ignored,” he wrote. “Because growth is an exalted industry for the storied Florida of yesteryear, truly a land of Eden-like O still enjoy plenty of popular support in Florida, even among devel- E T G A O N beauty, replete with promise. contributors to the book on at least two things—Florida’s decades- H unto itself...lawmakers have always focused on attracting hordes opers. Most residents want to see the excesses of growth curbed A P M

old campaign to get a grip on growth management hasn’t been a R That was the dream; here’s the reality—Floridians are get- E of new residents at all costs. The first casualty of such a fast-buck by better laws, even if surveys show they are decidedly conflicted T A W complete failure and deserves beefing up instead of being abandoned; mentality is the quality of life.” ting fed up with: U roadways that could pass for parking lots U A on the matter—they want to see Florida’s environment protected, D I

and any plan, no matter how improved, is doomed to fail without R nearly year-round water rationing utility bills that rival monthly O but at the same time they continue to sprawl onto quarter-acre U L F

strong political will, a commodity few will argue has been lacking H mortgage payments over-crowded and dysfunctional schools T lots and consume land at what some analysts describe as “the most

U U O S

from the day the growth management act was signed into law. U green areas being bulldozed for more malls and condos U : SATAN OR SAVIOR? unsustainable rate in the nation.” O T

mounting restrictions on recreational saltwater fishing and boat- Casey Gluckman, an environmental attorney who also worked O Florida’s epic struggle to deal with a human flood unmatched H ing U insurance premiums that simply await the next, inevitable as a bureau chief for the state’s Department of Environmental P POPULAR POLEMICS ASIDE, in Planning for Paradise sordid in U.S. history should be seen as a work in progress, the writers hurricane to go higher U property taxes completely out of sync Protection back in the 1980s, witnessed the steady watering- development, idealistic visions, and human nature also comes to conclude. Given the number and enormity of challenges the state with a collapsing real estate market yet to hit bottom U and, of down of the law she helped write. In 1999, a reporter from the light, but here there are no heroes or villains—just a scenario that faces, giving up the struggle now makes no sense in the middle late, a tanking state economy sure to make everything even worse. St. Petersburg Times asked Gluckman if the law had been effective. obliges 18 million Floridians to reconcile a fast approaching future of what they see as an evolutionary process. The “final verdict” For this growing legion of the disenchanted, any lingering notion “Has the Growth Management Act worked? No,” she was quoted with their own sense of good and evil. on whether the struggle has produced any lasting benefits they of Florida as “paradise” has left the building. as saying. “Show me a mall that’s been denied. Show me a big When assessing growth management, the devil will always write, is still “decades in the making.” In 2007, a new Mason-Dixon survey conducted by Leadership developer who has made major campaign contributions who has be in the details and, given the nature of the beast that is city So, whether Florida’s growth policies are “Satan or savior” is Florida, a group run by the state Chamber of Commerce, showed had his project denied. Show me a road extension through sensitive planning, biblical references often spice appraisals of the profes- a call for tomorrow’s Paradise-seekers to make—and to live with. just how real residents’ disillusionment has become. Fully 43 areas that’s not been built. There are pitifully few examples.” sion. Such is the case for the book’s closing chapter, “The 1985 Meanwhile, in many ways Florida remains John Nolen’s “great percent of 1,100 Floridians interviewed said that their quality of To the legion of fans of Florida-born novelist Carl Hiaasen, Growth Management Act: Satan or Savior,” written by Chapin, laboratory of city and town planning.” It’s much the same old life had dropped in the past five years. Only 24 percent expected Gluckman’s plaint is as familiar as traffic stalled on hot Orlando Connerly and Higgins. game of matching humans to habitat. Only this time around, Flo- things to get better in the next five; 37 percent believe things are asphalt. Hiaasen, also a weekly columnist for the Miami Herald, The authors provide considerable evidence that Florida’s ridians are playing for stakes far higher than Nolen—or anyone— only going to get worse. has made a fortune off his dark-edged fiction that draws its power future isn’t all bleak. For one thing—a big thing, in fact—Florida could have thought possible 80 years ago. RinR But despite their glum outlook, 62 percent of the respondents from real-life accounts of greedy developers, demented hucksters has preserved more natural lands than any other state in the past said they would still recommend Florida as a final destination for and corrupt politicians running amok through what’s left of two decades. On the theory that outright land purchases trump friends and relatives. The finding underscores what is the Florida Florida’s natural landscape. even the best land-use regulations—subject to political vagaries EDITOR'S NOTE: Contributing to this article was R. Bruce phenomenon: In the minds of millions already here and those In a 2006 interview for CBS’s 60 Minutes, Hiaasen summed as these inevitably are—no harder line may ever be drawn in the Stephenson, associate professor and chair of the environmental yet to come, a Florida address will always represent a personal up his opinion on Florida growth management and politicians’ battle over Florida’s growth than locking away land forever from studies department at Rollins College in Winter Park. Stephenson stake in paradise, no matter how compromised America’s Eden role in that. “This is an economy that’s based on growth—growth the clutches of development. If nothing else, the anguish wrought has written extensively on city planning in general and in particular, has become. for the sake of growth,” he said. “The one word that no politician by the flawed 1985 Growth Management Act, as FSU’s 20-year Florida's pioneer planner, John Nolen (1869-1937).

32 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 33 B Y C H R I S T I N E S U H

SIZE COUNTS FOR LITTLE IN THE AMAZING LIVES OF DIATOMS.

SMALL

EACH IS SMALLER THAN A PERIOD ON THIS PAGE, but en masse, diatoms pack an environmental wallop as strong as any organism on the planet. E L

D Perhaps better known for the striking, intricate patterns of their D I R

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A silica walls, the otherwise low-key organisms play critical roles in

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ecology. A major component of phytoplankton, diatoms are at the D A S A

R base of the aquatic food chain and have been credited by scientists P

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F for absorbing as much carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, as O

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E all of the world’s tropical rain forests. N T A R T U S

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Y Beyond nourishing animals of all kinds and helping to keep the C A

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S : O O T T planet’s carbon in balance, the single-cell organisms also are val- O O H H P P

SCIENTIST AKSHINTHALA PRASAD M

O ued in human industries ranging from the lucrative oil sector to T A I D environmental monitoring. opposite above: THIS RECENTLY DISCOVERED SPECIES, found by FSU diatomist A. Prasad among plankton recovered from the waters of Wolfe Bay, Alabama (near Pensacola) in 2007, belongs to the genus Cyclotella. (magnification: 25,000x) 34 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 > 35 1 Whole Cyclotella cells in girdle view (12,000x) 2 The bilaterally symmetric Gyrosigma balticum, from Apalachee Bay, Florida (10,000x) 3 The triangular Biddulphia reticulum, from Apalachee Bay, Florida (3,000x) 4 The radially symmetric Actinoptychus undulatus from SMALL Apalachee Bay, Florida (15,000x) 5 The bilaterally symmetric Nitzschia compressa from Apalachee Bay, Florida (28,000x) 6 Cyclotella sp. Striae and interstriae detail from Wolfe Bay, Alabama (25,000x) 7 Cyclotella on top of Actinocyclus from Wolfe Bay, Alabama 8 Marginal process in Cyclotella choctawhatcheeana from Wolfe Bay, Alabama (5,000x) E

L Continued from page 35 cies hasn’t already been described somewhere and research botanist emeritus at the University D D I Despite their ubiquity and diverse roles, the in the world. With no comprehensive database of California-Berkeley. R

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A ancient microbes (their fossils date back 180 or manual, particularly for marine diatoms, James Nienow, professor and diatomist at

. K million years) remain a curiosity. determining whether a species is different from Valdosta State University in Georgia who has &

D the thousands of others already described is a A Just recently, scientists have learned that worked with Prasad over the past 20 years, says, S A long, tedious process, Prasad says, and there R at least one diatom species uses a molecular “He is one of the top diatomists in the state—if P

. are not many diatomists to go around. not the world—for coastal marine diatoms.” A pathway—the urea cycle—previously found

F

O only in animals. In 2004, a team of 46 research- In 2004 when the first (and, so far, the only) Further understanding of the under-studied

Y

S ers, led by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint diatom genome was sequenced, the journal organisms could clearly help scientists in a E T

R Genome Institute, became the first to sequence Science, which published the findings, reported variety of fields, with those in environmental U O C

1 2 3 the genome of a diatom species. The research- that only about 100 or so researchers called monitoring near the top of the beneficiary list. : S O

T ers were surprised to “These diatoms are sensitive to certain envi- O H P

find that some of the ronmental conditions,” Prasad says. “That’s why M

O diatoms are routinely being used in water-quality T diatom’s genes have A

I 8

D some counterparts in studies…But we have to have an inventory of plants and others in the species in our waters so we can think about animals, proof of how conservation. We don’t have that.” much there is still to Prasad is working to fill in at least part of this learn about the multi- knowledge gap. He has examined diatoms from faceted organisms. all corners of the globe—from the South China Even on a far sim- Sea to the Antarctic to the Galapagos. But his pler level than genetic specialty has been in cataloging diatoms in the identity, scientists have estuaries and bays of Alabama and Florida. The barely made a dent in 12 species Prasad has described and named so 4 5 6 cataloging the world’s far come from Florida coastal waters. His goal diatoms by physical is to compile the first identification manual of appearance. About Florida’s coastal diatoms. 10,000 diatom spe- But countless thousands of other diatoms cies, living and extinct, remain to be studied before scientists can draw have been identified a truly comprehensive map, complete with sea- The word “diatom” so far, but many more sonal population fluctuations, of the diatomic is derived from Greek terms essentially remain to be discovered. themselves diatom specialists. compositions of the world’s water bodies. A ma- “Nobody knows how many there are,” says Among these relatively small ranks, Pras- jor hurdle, say diatomists, is getting new students meaning “cut in half.” Diatom shells, also Akshinthala Prasad, FSU scholar/scientist in ad’s detailed work has earned him a spot among interested in the field. Valdosta State’s Nienow known as tests, are split into halves—one biological science. “Scientists believe there are the top tier. He has been elected secretary of says students are moving away from microscopy at least 100,000 species of diatoms still to be the International Phycological Society and to and morphology studies in favor of the sexier of which slightly overlaps the other—like described.” the International Committee of Nomenclature fields of molecular biology and genetics. the plates of a petri dish. In his 25 years at FSU studying diatoms, of Algae. And his research draws high praise So progress is slow—but increasingly es- 7 Prasad has described a dozen new species with from those familiar with it. sential for a number of scientists, industries, [ ] 16 more candidates in queue to be scrutinized “I’ve always been impressed by his scholar- and for those like Prasad whose passion is the and confirmed as species in their own right. ship,” says Paul Silva, chairman of the Inter- tiny—put powerful—diatom. The tough part is making sure a diatom spe- national Committee of Nomenclature of Algae RinR

36 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 37 ON MARCH 10, 1965, a small band of sisters joined protests in a violent week of confrontation in Selma, Alabama that galvanized B Y R O B E R T P O O L public attention to America’s civil rights dilemma.

CHANGING SISTERS P

whose ideas about nuns were A modern nun’s clothing is typically no different from

To someone : O T

formed mostly by watching The Sound of Music and O

that of anyone else, Koehlinger says, except that it’s H Today’s nuns bear little likeness P talking occasionally with a couple of sisters who generally not as expensive. Today’s nuns, who still taught at the local Catholic high school, a conversa- take the traditional oath of poverty, try to spend as to the nuns of yesteryear, thanks tion with Amy Koehlinger is an eye-opener. In just a little as possible on clothing and thus tend to get their few minutes of conversation, the assistant professor clothes from second-hand stores or clothing banks. to a painful era aimed at righting of religion at FSU manages to tear down a lifetime’s And most nuns no longer live in convents, Koe- worth of stereotypes. hlinger says. Their work takes them out into the For instance, few sisters outside of convents in the community—often into the less desirable parts of a world of wrongs. United States wear traditional habits any more. The town—so it is seldom convenient to base out of a

38 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 39 ...Koehlinger found herself drawn particularly to the group of nuns in the 1960s who

worked for racial justice... . K R ± O ± Y

W E

N THE SISTERS OF SAINT JOSEPH OF

PEGGY WOOD AND JULIE ANDREWS play the , R E

th T ROCHESTER at a march against the

quintessential Catholic nuns in the 1965 20 S E

H School of Americas, 2006. Century Classic “The Sound of Music.” C O R

, H P

E

S V O ± T J P

T

M SISTER CANDIDATE ANITA

N I F A O

S KUROWSKI entertains children at

N F O I O

S a Rochester City School. S S I R M E T R S E I P S

H E T H I T W

F D O E

S S E U

: V I O H ± T C O R H A P

E

AMY KOEHLINGER’S H T

F O

NEW BOOK The New Y S E

Nuns presents an T R U updated, accurate de- O C

: piction of the lives of S O T O modern women H P religious. R

convent. They live instead in houses or apartments rented or owned by justice and, in so doing, developed a template I bad part of town, Koehlinger remembers—so ship of religion to social reform and politi- O N

for a new sort of nun, one that has come to O bad that when she got there the cab driver cal activism. “How do you get from good their congregations. It is only when they retire from active service and I D U

predominate in the years since the 1960s. T wasn’t sure he should even let her out. When Catholic schoolgirl to radical nun?” she S

no longer require separate housing that they move back to the convent. : O

T she insisted, he told her he would stay around wondered. The question dovetailed with O

As a result, she says, convents today function primarily as nursing homes H P long enough to make sure she would be okay. her broader curiosity about how religion for aged sisters. Radical She ended up working there for a year. shapes social critique and social engagement. NUNS The organization, she discovered, was After receiving her doctorate in religion in Modern-day nuns drive cars, carry check- convents means that they no longer gather Koehlinger’s interest in nuns began quite by connected with all sorts of radical Catholic 2002 from Yale, Koehlinger joined FSU’s books, and generally do the same things several times a day with their fellow sisters accident. After finishing her junior year at groups—“radical” in the sense that they religion faculty as an assistant professor of anyone else does—again, mostly as a matter for prayer. And their vows of poverty, chas- Indiana University, where she was majoring identified themselves with leftist causes and North American religious history. of expediency, Koehlinger says. If you’re trav- tity, and obedience—even though they are in political science and religion, she decided groups that fell outside of traditional main- In researching the Catholic sisters, Koe- eling from prison to prison to minister to the generally interpreted somewhat differently to take some time off from school. “I wanted stream Catholicism. These radical elements hlinger found herself drawn particularly to convicts, for instance, you need a car. than they were 40 years ago—still remain. to make the world a better place,” she says. formed a sort of underground in the Catho- the group of nuns in the 1960s who worked Even the terminology used to describe Nuns own nothing more than necessary, and It was 1989, and the AIDS crisis was in full lic Church, that was interested in a variety for racial justice in various ways. They cre- sisters is different. As Koehlinger explains, they do not marry. The singular difference is swing, so she chose to work for an AIDS of social-justice issues. And of all the radical ated free summer schools and playground although “nun” is still used colloquially to re- that today’s nuns interpret their mission in a service organization. sorts Koehlinger came in contact with at programs for inner-city black children, they fer to any of these women, technically speak- very different way than was normal a couple Moving to Washington, D.C., she be- Damien, she found the nuns most interest- helped keep open Catholic parish schools ing it is only those sisters living cloistered of generations ago. gan interviewing at different agencies that ing. She remembers one group of Irish nuns in the inner city after white students left for lives in a convent who are called nuns, and How those changes came about is a long, worked with AIDS patients. One of them in particular who were very well educated segregated neighborhoods in the suburbs, the term “women religious” is increasingly fascinating story and one that has not yet was Damien Ministries, a small organization and exceptionally intelligent. “I thought, and they even taught classes at historically heard, Koehlinger said, although “sisters” is been completely told, although Koehlinger founded by Roman Catholic priests with Where do these women come from?” black colleges so that the professors there also acceptable. has now made a good start. In her recently AIDS, most of whom had been quietly asked She was hooked, and the subject of Cath- could take time off for sabbaticals and re- What hasn’t changed about nuns, Koe- released book, The New Nuns: Racial Justice to leave their orders when they got sick. olic nuns—particularly the ones interested search projects. Working behind the scenes hlinger says, is that their primary commit- and Religious Reform in the 1960s (Harvard, Its mission was to provide homeless AIDS Amy Koehlinger in social justice—became a topic that she in this way, they did not play the sorts of ment is still to the Christian God. They 2007), she describes how a small group of patients, mainly poor and black, with food ± would immerse herself in. After getting her roles that get much mention in the many still have robust prayer lives, for example, nuns immersed themselves in the civil rights and housing. KOEHLINGER became interested in the lives of nuns undergraduate degree, she went to graduate histories that have been written about the even though living outside the traditional movement and the broader quest for racial Damien Ministries was in a particularly while working at Damien Ministries in Washington, DC. school with the goal of studying the relation- civil rights movement, and so their story

40 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 41 ±

SISTERS OF SAINT JOSEPH SERVING A MEAL to visiting sisters who came to Selma in sup- P A

: O

port of civil rights efforts there in 1965. (bottom left) SISTER LOUIS BERTRAND DIXON, SSJ, T O H

Administrator of Good Samaritan Hospital in Selma, Alabama in the 1960s. The hospital was P one of the few that served African Americans prior to the 1960s.

over the next three years the council took on same time, rethinking democracy, and the

a wide range of issues, and the documents nuns listened and heard. ± issued by the council eventually influenced In another sense, Koehlinger says, the CHANGING SISTER: A young the church in a number powerful of ways. new nuns were simply harkening back to a Sister Robert Schmidt in one of Among the most noticeable changes that tradition of focusing on social justice that has her “awakening” moments at the resulted from the Council were the use of been a part of the church for centuries. Par- vanguard of a civil rights protest less Latin in services, having the priest turn ticularly in the United States, historically the in Selma, Alabama in 1965 (see around and face the congregation, and al- Catholic church has reached out to oppressed page 38). lowing nuns to shed their traditional habits. minorities—e.g. the Irish, the Italians, and But there were also a number of internal the Poles—and paid attention to economic

. changes that affected mainly priests, nuns, issues, labor issues, and racial justice. K R O Y

and others who had taken religious vows. “It’s an older, deeper tradition,” she

W Sister Roberta Schmidt E N

One such change, Koehlinger said, was an says. “The church has always been progres- , . A R L E F T

increased emphasis on collegiality and a sive on certain issues.” , S E E C H I

C corresponding de-emphasizing of hierarchy.

As far back as the 17th century, the N O E R V

,

For nuns, this meant a move away from the F

H church hierarchy took a stand for racial O P

E E S time-honored model where mother superi- justice and against the evils of slavery, she S O E J C

O T I

N ors are the absolute heads of a convent and said. However, rank-and-file members D I

A E S

H F whose orders are obeyed without question weren’t necessarily as opposed to slavery as T

: O

O S T R

to a more democratic model where nuns was the church hierarchy. The racially activist O E H T P S I work together to determine God’s will and

S sisters that Koehlinger met while working

: S

O the convent’s direction. at Damien Ministries as an undergraduate T O H

P It took years—decades, even—for were, she says, “a clear embodiment of this the various ramifications of Vatican II (as form of Catholicism.” the council was called) to make their way SISTER OF SELMA through the church, and, indeed, the mean- ings and implications of some of the direc- had been mostly ignored, Koehlinger dis- HANGES or radical nun, she said. She knew tives are still being argued about. But what C Armed only with covered. a crash course in civil disobedience she might be harmed, but the sisters and Religious Reform in the 1960s because I was a faculty member was perhaps more interesting, Koehlinger So even before the changes set in motion and the determination to march for were impassioned. (see main story). Koehlinger also and teaching sociology,” she said. learned, is that many of the changes in the by Vatican II appeared, a growing number what they knew was right, Sister “I was just doing what I believed served as an informal consultant It also helped that her religious church that led to the appearance of the of sisters with progressive ideas were bris- The Second Roberta Schmidt and five other nuns in,” said Schmidt, now 79. for the “Sisters of Selma.” community’s leadership was at the new nuns actually predated Vatican II. Koe- tling under the restrictions of the church, from St. Louis flew to a rural Alabama Wearing the traditional nun’s During an era when nuns and forefront of the civil rights move- hlinger discovered that in the early 1960s a Koehlinger said. They were eager for ways VATICAN town in response to an appeal by Rev. habit at the time, Schmidt and her the church were still shying away ment, she said. But even with this group of progressive, socially activist nuns to work outside the traditional jobs the Martin Luther King Jr. fellow sisters in a sea of thousands from public activism, Schmidt and support and her educational back- COUNCIL began chafing under the restraints of the old church had laid out for them. They wanted It was March 10, 1965, and King of civil rights protestors made a her fellow St. Louis sisters were ground, Schmidt said she didn’t re- order and were already fighting to transform to minister to everyone, not just to Catho- had called on the nation’s religious dramatic visual and historic impact among the first women religious to alize the full gravity of what she was The 1960s were a time of transition for the the church from within. lics, and, in particular, they thought they leaders to address the violence in on the Civil Rights movement—so protest on the political stage. participating in until she returned to Catholic Church as a whole, and a major fac- Koehlinger traces the presence of these should be ministering to the neediest in Selma that erupted just a few days much so that 40 years later, they Schmidt, who went by the St. Louis from Selma. After only a tor driving change in the church was the Sec- socially active nuns to several factors. society. Koehlinger spoke with several nuns earlier. Police had bloodied many of would become the subject of a name Sister Ernest Marie in the day in Alabama, the National Guard ond Vatican Council, Koehlinger said. Pope Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the who told her about the discomfort they 600 marchers who had gathered in PBS documentary film, “Sisters of religious tradition of the time, had encouraged the Missouri sis- John XXIII had called the council to address church had sent many nuns to universities felt teaching in Catholic schools in what support of blacks’ voting rights. Doz- Selma,” which debuted in 2006. attributes her defiance of the main- ters to return home for their own theological issues as well as questions about to earn advanced degrees, and because many they saw as all-white, upper-class, suburban ens were wounded under the police They would also illustrate so stream to her education. When protection. When they touched the role of the church in the modern world, of these sisters chose to study the social sci- enclaves. The sisters “didn’t like the effect baton, and that March day would be clearly the transformation of Catho- King called the religious com- down at the airport, Schmidt was and the initial agenda had been set by the ences, they were exposed to the various ideas of prosperity on the students.” They felt dubbed “Bloody Sunday.” lic sisters from the Civil Rights era to munities to action, Schmidt was stunned to see throngs of national Vatican. But once the 2,000-plus bishops in vogue among social scientists of that era. stifled, and they wanted to get out into the Schmidt, currently the director of today, the subject of FSU assistant teaching at Fontbonne University, a reporters there to greet them. arrived and the council began, the bishops In particular, in the wake of World War II, world to work with the less fortunate. It’s education at the Diocese of Venice, professor Amy Koehlinger’s 2007 Catholic institution in St. Louis. “That was an awakening,” she took over. They decided to set the agenda many academics were trying to understand this group of nuns that Koehlinger focuses Fla., did not see herself as an activist book, The New Nuns: Racial Justice “I believe I had good insight said.—C.S. themselves—with the Pope’s blessing—and and come to grips with fascism and, at the Continued on page 30

42 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRING 2008 43 CHANGINGSISTERS

Continued from page 30 degrees taught in historically black colleges reconceptualized. In the past the vows had

D R

on in her book. to enable black faculty there to take sabbati- been seen in terms of denial: no possessions, A Y

Portrait N S P O T L I G H T O N F L O R I D A S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y F A C U L T Y A

One of the first things these activist sisters cals for research and writing. Others created no marriage, and limited personal autonomy T S

Y programs to help blacks and white learn to in decision-making. Now, the sisters see A faced, Koehlinger discovered, was a constant R

: O need to negotiate with their church superiors communicate and get along. One traveling the vows instead as a form of freedom and T O H to do the things they thought needed do- workshop of “nuns on wheels” consisted of a empowerment—they represent clearing P ing to answer their calling. In her book, for group of sisters who rode in a station wagon one’s life of things that might interfere with instance, she describes a group of nuns who from convent to convent and held seminars doing God’s work. By refraining from mar- set up a free summer school for children liv- on racial sensitivity. riage, for instance, the sisters aim to avoid ing in a housing project in central Chicago These experiences transformed sisters’ the problem of love for a particular person in the summer of 1965. The sisters wished to views of both themselves and their religious making it difficult to love everyone. rent apartments in the housing project itself purpose, Koehlinger says. Many sisters who In a sense the first two vows have re- to be close to the people they were helping. had worked with the disadvantaged came to mained pretty much unchanged—nuns are Diocesan officials balked and insisted that the feel a sense of purpose and to believe that they still expected to forgo sex and the accumula- sisters follow the traditional pattern of staying were grappling with many of the central is- tion of possession—but the vow of obedience, in a convent, which required them Koehlinger says, has changed quite a to drive a long distance to and from bit. Whereas in the past it was seen as the project each day. In this case the pledging obedience to one’s superiors, sisters did not get what they wanted, it is now seen as obedience to the call but by constantly pushing for new of God in one’s life. This leads some . K

ways of doing things, new nuns like sisters to what Koehlinger calls a “radi- R O Y

these would manage to open up many cal obedience to self and God” instead W E N

,

doors previously shut to them. of obedience to traditional authority, R E T S

One area of change was where which leads sisters to listen much more E H C

to their own conscience than to their O

nuns were allowed to work. Before R

, H

Vatican II, the sisters were largely superiors. P E S O J

confined to the traditional Catholic The 1960s were both an exciting T N I

sphere: the church, the convent, and a confusing time to be a nun in A A S S O C I AT E P R O F E S S O R O F E D U C AT I O N S H E R RY S O U T H E R L A N D S

F O

Catholic schools, Catholic charities the United States. Some sisters who S R E

and hospitals, and so forth. (Nuns lived through it speak of it as a “pain- T If Florida’s public school children ever escape the cellar of science ence in a rural public high school; she’s published research findings S I S

who established the free school near ful period” which saw a mass exodus : literacy—where years of national and state testing confirms they are— on science education in a variety of settings for nearly 20 years. O T O

the Chicago housing project used from the church in the 1960s and H science educators say that policymakers and concerned parents will Last fall, on the heels of being named co-director of FSUTeach, the P an abandoned Catholic school that was still ± 1970s, Koehlinger said. Nuns were torn-- have to come to grips with at least two things: Florida’s universities most ambitious attempt yet to overhaul science and math teacher edu- owned by the diocese.) But this severely BROTHERS & SISTERS: An unidentified some thought the church wasn’t changing have got to start turning out a whole new class of teachers far better cation and training in Florida (see page __), Southerland was named a restricted the types of people that the nuns group of civil rights marchers get a ride fast enough and others thought it was chang- trained to teach science and math than ever before; and success isn’t fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in could minister to, and they gradually ex- from an Alabama airport to Selma from the ing too fast. going to come easily or overnight. honor of her career contributions to science education. Few educators know more acutely what Florida faces in stemming If energy and enthusiasm are requisites for FSUTeach to succeed, panded the list of acceptable ministries until Sisters of Saint Joseph in March 1965. But in the end, Koehlinger said, it was a troubling malaise in students’ competence in science and math than change is on the horizon for Florida’s science classrooms. For an ex- the sisters on the racial justice front lines— i eventually it no longer seemed strange to Sherry A. Southerland. Since joining the College of Education’s Sci- ample of what Southerland sees as important, she’s put in long hours those who opened summer schools in inner have nuns spending most of their time with ence Education Program in 2002, Southerland has become a “spark fighting to get Florida’s public science teaching standards to include— non-Catholics in places that had little or no cities, taught at historically black colleges, plug,” in the words of a colleague, for igniting long overdue change in for the first time in history—specific references to the theory of evolu- connection with the church. sues facing American society, such as poverty, and were willing to be beaten by police in her field of science and math teacher education. tion and what it means for every branch of life science known. A second area of change was the sorts hunger, race relations, and the insufficient Selma, Alabama—who finally rewrote the Trained in invertebrate physiology at Auburn (M.S., ’85) and in sci- “Some of these things are not debatable. If you want world-class of work that nuns were allowed to perform. education and health care available to the script for what it means to be a nun. ence education at Louisiana State University (Ph.D.,’94), Southerland standards, you have to learn the science everybody else is learning,” To that point, most nuns had worked in very disadvantaged. And once they had experi- Interestingly, while the activist nuns brings the kind of credentials that would seem to be the prerequisites for Southerland said. “That we’re still having the evolution conversation traditional jobs, such as teaching—mainly in enced this sort of involvement, many found ultimately played only a minor role in the any change agent likely to make a difference in her profession. She’s in this country means we’re still way behind. We need a more scien- Catholic schools—and nursing. In the 1960s, it difficult to return to the sorts of traditional civil rights movement, Koehlinger found applied her science training outside the academic fence, working as tifically and mathematically literate populous. And that’s very much nuns interested in helping disadvantaged jobs that nuns had performed in the past. that the movement nonetheless blazed a trail a forensic chemist for a state crime lab in Louisiana. She’s taught sci- the intentions of the national reform effort and FSUTeach.” –F.S. minorities took on many new types of jobs. Other changes were happening in the for the socially active sisters of today, and ir- They developed food co-ops, organized church at the same time, Koehlinger said. revocably turned a 1,600-year-old institution SHERRY SOUTHERLAND is an associate professor in the FSU College of Education, where she’s also coordinator of the college’s Sci- on its head. summer camps, and set up programs to visit For example, the three traditional vows of ence Education Program. Last fall, she was named co-director for the new FSU-Teach teacher preparation program that launched the elderly. A number of sisters with doctoral poverty, chastity, and obedience were being RinR this spring. In February, she was inducted as a fellow in the AAAS, the world’s largest general scientific society.

44 Florida State University ResearchinReview WINTER/SPRINGSPRING 2007 2008 45